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HISTORY 



OF THE 



KINGS OF FRANCE; 



CONTAINING 

THE PRINCIPAL INCIDENTS IN THEIR LIVES, FROM THE FOUNDATION 

OF THE MONARCHY TO LOUIS PHILLIPPE, WITH A 

CONCISE BIOGRAPHY OF EACH. 



ILLUSTK.ATED BY 



<Sebent»*Srtoo 33ortvaits of ti)e Sobercigns ot jFcancc. 



BY 

THOMAS WYATT, A.M., 

AUTHOR OF "natural HISTORY," " ELEMENTS OF BOTANY," "MANUAL OF CONCHOLOGY," 

" conchologist's first book," etc, etc. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

CAREY AND HART, 

1846, 



o f 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 

CAREY AND HAET, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsvlvania. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, 

PRINTERS. 



AUTHOE'S PEEEACE. 



It is believed that among all the labored histories of France, 
there is not in existence an illustrated biographical sketch of the 
lives and customs of their kings : this is only to be acquired by 
toiling through a variety of authors, many of which are but im- 
perfectly known. The author of this volume has for his object 
the presentation of a work extracted from the best authorities, 
placed in biographical order, so as to become interesting and 
useful to readers of either sex. 

He has attentively compared various authors, and trusts this 
volume will be found to contain facts incontestably established. 

For much of this valuable matter, the author is indebted to the 
voluminous works of both Gregory of Tours and the Abbe 
Velly, two historians of that day whose works for veracity are 
very generally quoted by modern writers ; also to the productions 
of Professor d'Arnay, and Mr. GifFord, his obligations are ac- 
knowledged. 

In order to give this work an importance, not only in the Li- 
brary, but to the Cabinet of the Numismatist, and collector of 
Medals, it is embellished with portraits of seventy-two Sove- 
reigns who filled the throne from the foundation of the monarchy 
to the present reign, engraved from a series of medals lately 
issued in France and believed to be perfect likenesses. The 
sources from which they were originally obtained are given in the 
following pages. 

In conclusion, therefore, the compiler most respectfully sub- 
mits his efforts to the tribunal of an indulgent public. 



Series of Medals contained in this volume can be obtained 
from Carey & Hart, Philadelphia, at the following prices — 

In bronze, - - |75 00 

Plated with silver, - 85 00 

Do. gold, - 100 00 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Pharamond. First King of France — Foundation of the monarchy — Con- 
version of Pharamond to Christianity — Institution of the Salique law — 
Death, &c. ........ 17 

Clodion. His turbulent and unhappy reign — Description of the race, 
dress, &c. ......... 18 

Merovee. His inauguration, character, &c. . . . .20 

Childeric I. Attempt to steal and carry him into captivity — His rescue 
— Return of the piece of gold as a signal of attachment — Curious relics 
found in his tomb . . . . . . .21 

Clovis I. Ascension to the throne — Challenge to Syagrius — A bloody 
battle the result — His marriage — Conversion to Christianity, vi^ith three 
thousand of his subjects — The holy phial — The Passage of the Hind — 
Death of Clovis ........ 23 

Childebert I. At the death of Clovis his four sons draw lots for the 
division of the kingdom — Paris is drawn by Childebert — Description of 
the divisions — Death of Clodomir and Thierri — Builds and establishes a 
number of monasteries — Abolishes idols, images, &c. . . .27 

Clotaire I. Takes up arms against his son, who had joined the Britons 
against his father — Taken prisoner, and by his father's orders executed 
on the spot — His wife and three children strangled and burnt — Clotaire 
dies in a state bordering on distraction . . . . .31 

Caribert. Division of France into four kingdoms — Seizure of the late 
king's treasures by his son Chilperic — Caribert's marriage — His queen 
abjures Arianism — He repudiates Ingoberga, and marries the daughter 
of an artisan, and thirdly the daughter of a shepherd . . .32 

Chilperic I. Battle with the Hungarians — Chilperic is taken prisoner — 
is restored to liberty — Dress worn at that day — Marriage of the son of 
Chilperic to his aunt — The prelate disgraced and the son assassinated 
— The wicked reign of Chilperic visited by the anger of Heaven — His 
assassination on his return from his country seat . . .35 

Clotaire H. Flight and protection of Fredegonda — Declared regent and 
guardian to her infant son — Attempt to assassinate Childebert — Sup- 
posed to be instigated by the wicked Fredegonda — Her stratagem and 
battle with the Austrasians — Her crimes and death . . .43 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



WIS I. Proclaimed king and emperor— Conspiracy detected— Consni 



50 



Dagobert I. Acknowledged king— The assassination of Brunulf by the 
order of Dagobert— Repudiation of his wife— Marries another — His 
throne of gold, &c. ,....•• 

Clovis II. Division of the kingdom between Clovis and his brother Sige- 
Ijert — Restoration of unjust exactions — Death of Sigebert — His son Da- 
gobert seized and carried to Scotland — Famine in France — Gold from 
the tombs of St. Denis sold for the relief of the poor, Stc. . . 54 

Clotaire III. Proclaimed king — Batilda made regent during the mi- 
nority of her son — Members of the court renowned for their wisdom 
and pietv — Assassination of a prelate, and the retirement of Batilda to 
the abbey of Chelles ....... 57 

Childeric II. Ligur appointed prime minister — Childeric takes a dislike 
to him — He is sent into confinement at the monastery of Luxeuil — His 
friend Hector is put to death — The massacre of Childeric, his wife 
and infant, at his country-seat at Livri near Chelles . . .60 

Thierri I. Ligur recalled from confinement — Election of mayor — Mur- 
der of Leudesie — Treasury plundered and churches pillaged by the Aus- 
trasians — Ligur again forced into retirement and his brother stoned to 
death — The battle of Testris gained by Austrasians, &c. . . 63 

Clovis III. Short reign of four year — Cope of St. Martin, a standard car- 
ried before the army in battle — Death of Clovis, &c. . . .66 

Childebert II. Succeeds his brother — P«,egency and mayoralty of Pepin 
— Christianity of Childebert, &c. . . . ". . .68 

Dagobert II. Kept in seclusion during his minority — Death of Pepin — 
Birth of the celebrated Charles Martel, &c. . " . . .70 

Clotaire IV. Translation of Clotaire from the throne of Austrasia to 
that of France — His ill health and death . . , .72 

Chilperic II. His ascension to the throne— Battle of Vinchy, and sud- 
den death ....... 70 

Thierri II Proclaimed King of Paris, Burgundy, and Austrasia— De- 
cisive battle with the Saracens— Institution of the Order of the Genet, &c. 75 

Interregnum. Lasts five years— Death of Charles Martel— Birth of Char- 
lemagne, &c. • . . . 

ChildericIII. Council ofPopeZachary-Carloman embraces a religious 
SUh'ku descends from the throne-Retires to the monastery of 

^'Sir;u-?K°';.'^''"~^'?^^ °^ *^" Saxons-War against the Lombards- 
His skill in the arena, &c. . , ^ 

Charlemagne. New monarchy raised on the ruins of Lombardy, styled 

indSeror:;r^-"^^*^ «^^-^ — «^: ^— ^^ to^Mft^ 

Louis 

rs put 1 

wife, &c 



77 

79 

81 

85 

89 
94 



CONTENTS. vii 

PAGE 

Louis II. Coronation — Peace with Germany — Death, supposed by poison 99 

Louis III. and Carloman. Coronation — Intrigues of Boson — Death of 
Louis — Carloman sole King of France— His death by a javelin, &c. .. lOi 

Charles the Fat. Charles receives the homage of the nobles— Sige- 
froy's fleet in the Seine — A furious attack on Paris, then but a small 
island — Death of Count Henry — Charles resigns the reins of govern- 
ment to Ludard, Bishop of Verceil — Banishment of the bishop—Repu- 
diation of the queen, &c. ....... 104 

EuDES. Elected king — Appointed guardian to the infant heir — Abdicates 
in favor of Charles, &c. ....... lOS 

Charles III. Apology of the archbishop — Charles returns from exile to 
the throne — Death of Eudes — France harassed by RoUo, a Dane — Mar- 
ries the daughter of Charles — His conversion to Christianity — Charles 
taken prisoner, and sent into confinement at Peronne, where he died 110 

Rodolph. Selected by the nobles and proclaimed king — His turbulent 
reign, &c. . . . . . . . . .114 

Louis IV. Called to the throne — Interference of bishops — Assassination 
of William of Normandy — Leaves one son, Richard, whom Louis places 
in safety — Richard is preserved by Osman, who conveys him away in a 
truss of hay — Louis pursues a wolf — Injured by a fall, which causes his 
death . . . . . . . . .115 

Lothaire. Crowned at Rheims — A peace which lasts several years — As- 
sociates his son Louis with the throne . . . . .119 

Louis V. Hugh Capet guardian to the young prince — Emma, his mother, 
regent, but from improprieties soon driven from her station — Premature 
death of Louis, supposed by poison — End of Carlovingian race . 121 

Hugh Capet. Situation of the kingdom — Proper names — Crowned at ' 
Rheims — Siege of Poictiers — Character of Hugh, &c. . . . 123 

Robert. Intrigues of a pontiff — Attempts to annul the marriage of Ro- 
bert — Is excommunicated — Robert submits and marries Constance of 
Provence — Insurrection at Melun — Execution of Gautier and wife — 
Peace and prosperity for many years ..... 127 

Henry I. Constance attempts the deposition of Henry in favor of her 
son Robert' — The nobles supply her with forces — Henry escapes — 
The queen dies, and Henry enjoys a tranquil reign — Dies by medicine 
improperly administered, &c. . . • • • .130 

Philip I. Revolt of the Gascons — The conquest of England at this time 
— Bloody contests in France — PhiJip is divorced from his queen — Mar- 
ries Emma of Sicily — Crusades against the infidels commenced — Death 
of Philip — His character, &c. ...... 133 

Louis VI. Coronation at Orleans — ^His marriage — Accommodation be- 
tween William of England and Louis accomplished by Pope Calixtus the 
Second — Loss of the White Ship, with Prince William of England, and 
numbers of nobility both of France and England — Admonition of Louis 
to his son . . . . • • • • .137 

Louis VII. Theological disputes — Doctrine of Abelard— His death— A 
crusade proposed and preached by Bernard — Louis arrives at Constan- 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

tinople on his way to the Holy Land— Attacks the Turks and defeats 
them— Louis pursued by a band of Saracens— Defends himself by climb- 
ing a tree — Sails for Jerusalem— Dies by apoplexy . . .142 

Philip IL Internal regulation of dominions — Intelligence from the Chris- 
tians in Palestine — War with England — Interview between Richard of . 
England and Philip — Swear friendship to each other, and mutual assist- 
ance during another crusade — Decisive battle with the Saracens — Death 
of Philip— His eulogy . . . . • • .146 

Louis VIII. Coronation at Rheims — Marches against Avignon — Capitu- 
lates — Dies at Montpenser ...... 150 

Louis IX. Queen Blanche regent — Louis commences another crusade 
to the Holy Land, with an army of thirty-nine thousand men — Battle 
witii the Saracens — Conquers — Returns to France — Plans another cru- 
sade — Sails for Tunis — Half the army destroyed by a pestilential dis- 
order — Death of Louis by the same disease, &c. . . . 152 

Philip III. Arrangement with the King of Tunis — Expenses of the war 
paid by the King of Tunis — Death of Philip's son — The queen accused 
of the murder by poison — Application to a nun — The queen declared 
innocent, and her accuser executed ..... 155 

Philip IV. Coronation at Rheims — Dispute between two seamen — Eng- 
land and France at war in consequence — Difficulties settled by Pope 
Boniface — Double marriage — Death of Philip .... 15S 

Lours X. Europe in commotion — Treasury exhausted — Embezzlement 
—Debasement of the coin— Charges against Marigny — Executions for 
supposed witchcraft— Innocence of Marigny — Death of Louis, &c, . 161 

Philip V. Uniformity of coin, weights and measures established — Pri- 
vate mints abolished— Death of Philip, &c. . . . . 166 

Charles IV. Divorced from his wife— Marries Mary of Luxembourcr 

Death of Mary and third marriage with Jane of Evreaux— Dispute be- 
tween Charles and the King of England— Dispute settled— Death of 
Charles, the last of Valois .... i67 

Philip VI. Arbiter between Jane of Navarre and the Kino- of England 
—Battle with the Flemings— Nineteen thousand killed, only seventeen 
French, &c. .... ^ j 



John. Crowned at Rheims-Invasion of Normandy by Duke of Lancaster 
—.Severe battle— John taken prisoner— Carried to London— Remains 
here two years-Peace concluded-John returns to Paris-Afterwards 
to London — Dies there, &c. 

Charles V. Castle of Roubois reduced by Du Guesclin-V/ar for the 
space of sixteen years--.Commencement of Royal Library-Imp ove- 
F^^'nch" '^'^^^^-Sf^^ral new inventions-Law's and cusLms of the 

Charles VI. Seizure of treasures of the late king— Revolt amonc thp 



169 



174 



183 



186 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

position — Marches upon Orleans — Surrender to her of six cities and 
towns — Joan conducts her sovereign to Rheims, where he is crowned 
— Joan taken prisoner and burnt at the stake, and her ashes thrown into 
the Seine ......... 190 

Louis XI. Public entry into Paris — Truce with Margaret of Anjou — 
Tumultuous reign — Louis addresses his son, &c. . . • 195 

Charles VIII. Pursues his studies — Henry of England lands at Calais — 
War averted by large sums of money — Matters adjusted — Henry re- 
turns to his kingdom — Charles receives a blow which causes his death, 
&c. 197 

Louis XII. Orleans race commences — Crowned at Rheims — Divorces 
his wife Jane, on account of deformity — Marriage with Anne of Brit- 
tany — Her death — Marries Mary, Princess of England — A tranquil 
reign — Dies lamented by his subjects ..... 201 

Fkancis I. Race of Angouleme — Crowned at Rheims — Crosses the Alps 
— Battle of Marignano — His son Charles, with four thousand men, 
killed 204 

Henry II. Two marriages — Discord between France and Spain termi- 
nated — Grand tournament — The king wounded — Causes his death, Sec 206 

Francis II. Cardinal Lorraine's wicked report — Execution of persons 
for plots against the government — Prince de Conde confined — Death of 
Francis after a reign of one year ..... 209 

Charles IX. Catherine de Medicis assumes the regency — Prince de 
Conde liberated — Wars between the Catholics and Protestants — The 
massacre of St. Bartholomew — Charles amuses himself at his forge, &c. 211 

Henry III. Quits Poland and arrives in France — Crowned at Rheims — 
Death of Catherine de Medicis in her seventieth year — Murder of Henry 
by James Clement, a Jacobin friar — Death of the friar by two of the 
guards, &c. ........ 214 

Henry IV. Invincible Armada commenced — Henry maintains the Catho- 
lic faith — Is crowned at Rheims — Attempt on his life by a Jesuit — The 
assassin executed and all Jesuits compelled to leave the kingdom- 
Henry marries Mary de Medicis — Is stabbed in his carriage by Francis 
Ravaillac, &c. . . . . • • • .216 

Louis XIII. Mary de Medicis assumes the guardianship of her son — 
Luines tutor to Louis — Murder of the Mareschal of Ancre — Mary 
ordered into exile — Escapes to Flanders — Duke of Orleans seeks shel- 
ter at the court of Lorraine. &c. ...... 220 

Louis XIV. Anne, widow of Louis, and the Cardinal Mazarin — Inde- 
pendence of Portugal — Louis enters Flanders with forty thousand men 
— Domestic calamity — Death of four members of the royal family — 
Character of Louis ....••• 225 

Louis XV. Duke of Orleans regent— Cardinal Dubois prime minister — 
Death of the Duke of Orleans — Proposed marriage of Louis by the re- 
gent — Opposition to the marrriage — The intended bride returned to her 
native country — Cardinal Fleury's administration— Removal of Countess 
Du Barre, favorite of Louis — His death, &c. .... 228 



239 



240 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Louis XVI Accession to the throne— Monkish appearance— Discontent 
among his subjects — Unpopularity of his queen — His impeachment, 
trial and execution — Execution of General Custme — Trial, charges, 
conviction and execution of the queen . . • • . ^^l 

Louis XVn. Birth— Confinement in prison— Placed under the care of a 
shoemaker — Treatment and death, &c. . . • • • 

Napoleon. Birth— Education— Preferments— Consulships— Marriage with 
.Tosephine— Repudiation— Marriage with Maria Louise— Birth of a son 

Entry into Moscow — Abdication — Embarks for Elba — Returns to 

France— Battle of Waterloo— Submits to the English — Sent to St. Helena 
— Death, &c. ....•••• 

Louis XVHL Flight from Paris — Refusal to abdicate in favor of Napo- 
jeon — Retires to England — Studies Roman Classics — Presidency of 
Talleyrand — Louis returns to France — Forms his cabinet from the old 
Nobility of France — Enioyed the crown of France nine years — Death, 
&c. . 243 

Charles X. Education — Titles — Distress — Sale of jewels, &c. — Retires 
to England — Pension from the English government — Returns to France 
— On the death of his brother is made king — Public entry into Paris — 
His coronation — Unpopular administration of Prince Polignac — Charles 
abdicates the throne — Retires to Scotland — Death, &c. . . 246 

Louis Philip. Education — Commission in the army — Travels through 
Switzerland — Professor at the College of Richenau — Emigration to the 
United States — Death of his brothers — His return — Visit to his mother 
at Mahon — Marriage at Palermo — Abdication of Charles — -Invitation to 
the French throne — Children, &c. ..... 249 



SOURCES UPON WHICH THE AUTHENTICITY OF 
THE MEDALLIC PORTRAITS IS FOUNDED. 



PHARAMOND. 



CLODION. 
MEROVEE. 
CHILDERIC I. 
CLOVIS I. 
CHILDEBERT I. 
CLOTAIRE I. 

CARIBERT. 
CHILPERIC I. 
CLOTAIRE II. 
DAGOBERT I. 
CLOVIS IL 
CLOTAIRE m. 

CHILDERIC IL 
THIERRI L 

CLOVIS TIL 
CHILDEBERT IL 
DAGOBERT IL 
CLOTAIRE IV. 
CHILPERIC IL 
THIERRI IL 
CHILDERIC IIL 
PEPIN. 
CHARLEMAGNE. 



From an engraving in the Promptuaire des Me- 
dailies, (a work published at Lyons in 1553, 
containing portraits of all the French Kings 
up to that time.) 

From the same. 

From an engraving in the Royal Library. 

From a portrait on a ring found in his tomb. 

From his statue, St. Genevieve du Mont. 

From his statue, Abbey of Nancy. 

From his statue in the subterranean Church of 
Saint Medard des Soissons. 

From a statue on his tomb at Blaye. 

From his statue at St. Germain des Pres. 

From the same. 

From his statue in the Church of Saint Denis. 

From the same. 

From an engraving in the Cabinet of Louis the 
Thirteenth. 

'From his statue at St. Germain des Pres. 

From his statue in the Abbey of St. Waast, at 
Arras. 

From a portrait in the cab. of Louis Thirteenth- 

From the same. 

From the statue on his tomb at Nancy. 

From the Promptuaire des Medailles. 

From his statue in the Church of Noyon. 

From a seal, A. D. 736, preserved at St. Denis. 

From an engraving in the works of Monlfaucon. 

From a seal, A. D. 760, preserved at St. Denis. 

From his statue at Aix-la-Chapelle. 



SOURCES OF THE MEDALLIC PORTRAITS. 



LOUIS I. 
CHARLES n. 

LOUIS n. 
LOUIS IIL ') 
AND y 
CARLOMAN.3 
CHARLES THE FAT. 
EUDES. 
CHARLES m. 

RAOUL. 
LOUIS IV. 
LOTHAIRE. 
LOUIS V. 
HUGH CAPET. 
ROBERT. 
HENRY L 
PHILIP L 
LOUIS VL 

LOUIS VIL 
PHILIP n. 
LOUIS VIIL 

LOUIS IX. 
PHILIP IIL 
PHILIP IV. 
LOUIS X. 
PHILIP V. 
CHARLES IV. 
PHILIP VL 

JOHN. 
CHARLES V. 

CHARLES VI. 
CHARLES VII. 
LOUIS XL 
CHARLES VIII. 
LOUIS xir. 



From an engraving in the Cabinet of Cotignon. 
From a portrait in a MS. Bible in the Royal Li- 
brary written during his reign. 
From a seal preserved at St. Denis. 

From their statues at St. Denis. 

From cabinet of Louis Thirteenth. 

From the same. 

From a portrait on a rent-roll in favor of St. 
Germain. 

From a seal, A. D. 931, preserved at St. Denis. 

From his statue at St. Remy. 

From his portrait at St. Remy. 

From a seal at St. Denis. 

From a seal preserved at St. Maur-les-Fosses. 

From a seal 1026, at St. Germain des Pres. 

From his statue at St. Denis. 

From the same. 

From a seal A. D. 1122, at the Abbey de la Vic- 
toire near Senlis. 

From his statue at St. Denis. 

From his statue at the Abbey de la Victoire. 

From an illuminated picture of the times pre- 
served in the Royal Library. 

From his bust in the Royal Museum. 

From a statue at St. Denis. 

From the same. 

From a statue at St. Denis. 

From a statue on his tomb, at St. Denis. 

From a portrait in the MSS. of Froissard. 

From a fresco painting in the Church De la 
Chartreuse de Bourfontaine. 

From a portrait in the Royal Library. 

From a portrait in a MS. preserved, in the court 
of accounts, Paris. 

From a portrait in possession of Froissart. 

From a statue at St. Denis. 

From an ancient medal in Royal Library. 

From his portrait by Leonardo de Vinci. 

From a medal in the Cabinet of Antiquities. 



SOURCES OF THE MEDALLIC PORTRAITS. 



FRANCIS I. 
HENRY 11. 
FRANCIS II. 
CHARLES IX. 

HENRY III. 
HENRY IV. 
LOUIS XIIL 
LOUIS XIV. 
LOUIS XV. 
LOUIS XVL 
LOUIS XVIL 
LOUIS XVIIL 
NAPOLEON. 
CHARLES X. 
LOUIS PHILIP. 



From a painting by Titian. 

From his bust in Royal Museum. 

From a medal in the mint of France. 

From a medal in honor of his majority, A. D. 

1564. 
From a medal in the mint of France. 
From a medal by G. Dupre, 1603. 
From the same, 1623. 
From medal of 1667. 
From a medal by Du Vivier. 
From a medal by Dupre, 1786. 
From portrait from nature. 
From portrait from nature. 
From portrait from nature. 
From portrait from nature. 
From a painting in the Louvre. 



The monarchy of France dates from Pharamond m 420, and 
is divided into seven lines or races inckiding Louis XVII. , (who 
never reigned,) and Napoleon, making 73 Sovereigns from 420 to 
1839, a period of 1419 years. 



MEROVINGIAN RACE. 

1. Pharamond. 

2. Clodioa 

3. Merovee. 

4. Childeric I. 

5. Clovis I. 

6. Childebert I. 

7. Clotaire I. 

8. Caribert. 

9. Chilperic I. 

10. Clotaire II. 

11. Dagobert I. 

12. Clevis II. 

13. Clotaire III. 

14. Childeric II. 

15. Thierri I. 

16. Clovis III. 

17. Childebert II. 

18. Dagobert II. 

19. Clotaire IV. 

20. Chilperic 11. 

21. Thierri II. 

22. Childeric III. 

CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 

23. Pepin. 

24. Charlemagne. 



25. Louis I. 

26. Charles II. 

27. Louis II. 

28. Louis in. 

29. Charles the Fat. 

30. Eudes. 

31. Charles IIL 

32. Raoul. 

33. Louis IV 

34. Lothaire. 

35. Louis V. 

CAPETIAN RACE. 

36. Hugh Capet. 

37. Robert. 

38. Henry L 

39. Philip L 

40. Louis VI. 

41. Louis VIL 

42. Philip IL 

43. Louis VIIL 

44. Louis IX. 

45. Philip m. 

46. Philip IV 

47. Louis X. 

48. Philip V. 

49. Charles IV 



PHARAMOND. 



A. D. 420.] From the numerous French historians it is sin- 
gular we should learn so little of the history of their first Chris- 
tian king. The Abbe Velly, considered the best French historian, 
and whose works are generally consulted in this compilation, 
informs us that the erection of that nation into a monarchy took 
place during the reign of Pharamond, but continued unsettled till 
the reign of Clovis, about sixty years after, when it appears to have 
received its firm basis. With Pharamond commenced the Mero- 
vingian race or line including twenty-two kings, so called from the 
first Merovee or Meroveus, the father of Pharamond. Agathias says 
that with the conversion of this king, civilization may be said to 
have commenced. He was converted to Christianity and baptized 
by Archbishop Goudebald at Amiens. Their religion heretofore had 
been as simple as their manners. The sun, the moon, fire, trees, 
and rivers were their deities. Their love of arms was visible 
even in the education of their children ; at an early age they taught 
them the use of warlike instruments, such as the sling, the mallet, 
the javelin, the battle-axe, and other similar weapons. Most of 
the French writers agree that to this king is ascribed the institu- 
tion of the salique law, which contains an article excluding females 
from the monarchy of France. This clause appears to have been 
well discussed by the great men of the kingdom, who unanimously 
decided, that women were incompetent to preside at the head of 
so great a nation. Of the seventy-one articles this celebrated law 
contained, the above is the only one unrepealed at the present 
day. In the year 420, Pharamond crossed the Rhine, and at the 
head of an army of Franks surprised and pillaged the city of 
2 



18 CLODION. 

Treves; after this, his first conquest, he was lifted upon a shield 
exposed to the sight of his whole army, and amid their shouts 
and acclamations, acknowledged as chief of their nation — the 
only mode of inauguration known to the ancient inhabitants of 
Gaul. Pharamond had two sons, Clodion, who succeeded him, 
and Clenus who died young. All writers who make mention of 
him at all, pronounce him amiable and kind-hearted, undaunted 
but not cruel; he reigned eight years, and died lamented by a 
nation he had so much improved. 



CLODION. 



A. D. 428.] Clodion, surnamed the Hairy, from the long flow- 
ing tresses he wore, succeeded his father Pharamond. 

His reign was turbulent and unhappy ; he had scarcely ascended 
the throne, when a Roman army of great strength marched against 
him, and entirely dispossessed him of his new Gaulic dominions, 
compelHng him to repass the Rhine. His young and buoyant 
heart throbbed for revenge ; he accordingly marched into Thu- 
ringia, committing much devastation, and destroying the magnifi- 
cent castle of Dispurg. 

This exasperated the Roman General Etius, who advanced 
against him a second time, and after subduing him in a severe battle 
in which much blood was shed on both sides, offered him a flag of 
truce rather than risk another contest with a nation which to defeat 
seemed only to invigorate. Clodion's memory still clung tenaciously 
to the beautiful kingdom of which he had so recently been dispos- 
sessed; brooding over his sorrows, his sole thoughts were its 
recovery. 

In order to raise an army formidable enough for his purposes, 
large mducements were held out to those who were willing to join 



CLODION. 19 

him. Having succeeded, he determined to seize more important 
places in the interior of the countiy. Receiving information that 
some of the principal cities were defenceless, he surprised and 
defeated the few Roman troops stationed there ; took Tournay, 
razed Cambray to the ground, and became possessor of all that 
beautiful country from Rheims to the river Somme. On this 
conquest many historians have based their assertions, that Clodion, 
and not Pharamond, caused France to become a monarchy, and 
Cambray the capital of the kingdom. Adon writes that Cambray 
being the centre of this late conquest, Clodion established his 
court there, and consequently called it the capital. Marianus 
Schotus, a monkish writer of those times, draws so admirable a 
portrait of this interesting race, that it merits a place here. " They 
are," says that writer, "tall in stature ; their skin is very white, 
and their eyes are blue ; their faces entirely shaved, except the 
upper lip, on which they suffer two small whiskers to grow ; hair, 
cut short behind, and long before; their dress short; they wear a 
large girdle from whence hangs a sword that is heavy and gene- 
rally very sharp. There is no nation existing so well versed in 
military motions and evolutions. Such is their skill, that they 
never fail to strike what they aim at; so prodigious their agility, 
that they reach the enemy almost as soon as the dart which they 
have thrown at him ; in short, their intrepidity is such that no 
number of their foes, however formidable, astonishes them ; or by 
local disadvantages, or even by death itself, when encompassed 
with all his horrors. They may lose their lives, but never can their 
courage." 

The Roman General Etius, learning their untamable valor, was 
unwilling further to encounter a race who had as many soldiers 
as citizens. Historians of that age inform us that Clodion had 
two sons ; the eldest was killed at the battle of Soissons, leaving 
issue Merovee, who succeeded his father to the throne. 

Clodion's grief for his son was excessive, and soon put a period 
to a reign of twenty years, the greater part of which was spent 
in broils and battles with the Romans. 



MEROVEE. 



A. D. 448.] The history of this king has afforded much con- 
troversy among ancient historians. Gregory of Tours asserts 
that he was a son of Clodion, and not a grandson as before re- 
lated. Priscus affirms most positively that at the death of Clo- 
dion, Merovee, fearing the jealousy of his father's brother, who 
laid claim to the crown, implored the assistance and protection 
of Attila, King of the Huns ; he even tells us that he saw him at 
Rome. He was, says Priscus, a youth of comely form, and 
fair to look upon, his fair hair flowing gracefully over his well- 
made form ; he became the adopted son of Etius, the Roman 
general, and resided many years under his protection. Merovee 
distinguished himself in the Roman army at the celebrated battle 
between Etius and Attila, from which circumstance it is believed 
the Franks were determined to give him the throne to which he 
was the rightful heir. He was accordingly inaugurated before 
his army in the plains of Chalons, in Champagne. Merovee 
had many good and great qualities ; he was attached to men of 
letters, sought their society, and loaded them with honors. 

He removed them from the chair of eloquence, to fill the first 
offices of state. During the short reign of this king, the arts 
and sciences were encouraged, several distinguished academies 
founded, and Christianity purged of many of its errors. 

This illustrious and virtuous prince died after a reign of ten 
years, leaving one son, Childeric, his successor. 



CHILDEEIC THE FIRST. 



A. D. 458.] Saint Genevieve gives a short but interesting ac- 
count of this romantic reign, signalized by so many adventurous 
exploits. Childeric claims a position hitherto unread in the an- 
nals of his country. In his infancy, a conspiracy was planned 
by Attila, to steal and carry him into captivity, which was ac- 
cordingly attempted by some soldiers of his army ; after traveling 
nearly two hundred miles he was rescued from their hands by 
a few valiant Franks, and returned to his throne and his people. 

This, however, was of short duration, for at the age of eighteen 
he was deprived of his throne by a conspiracy among his no- 
bles, and compelled to retire to Germany. During the banish- 
ment of this prince, at a general assembly of Franks, the crown 
was placed on the head of Eagidius, a general of the Roman 
forces in Gaul. This singular choice proved to be temporary, for 
the conduct of Eagidius soon estranged the affections of his sub- 
jects, who seriously regretted the exile of their lawful prince, 
and determined upon recalling him. Wiomald, a friend and 
faithful adherent to Childeric, on hearing of the dissensions and 
dissatisfaction of the subjects of Eagidius, took advantage of the 
ascendency he possessed over the mind of the new monarch to 
advise him to such measures as soon rendered him odious to the 
nation. 

A. D. 464. It was now determined that Childeric should be 
recalled; his faithful friend and subject Wiomald, ever attentive 
to the interests of his liege, sent him the half of a piece of gold, 
that they had broken at their separation; which was under- 
stood by Childeric to be a signal for his return to Gaul. He 



22 CHILDERIC THE FIRST. 

accordingly left Germany, made his appearance in Gaul, and for 
the third and last time ascended the throne of his ancestors. 
Greo-ory of Tours relates a remarkable and singular event which 
followed. The Queen of Thuringia, like the memorable Helen, 
left the king, her husband, to follow and share the fortunes of this 
second Paris. "Did I know," said she, " a greater hero, or a 
more gallant man than you, I would follow him to the ends of 
the earth." Childeric, allured by the excessive beauty and sen- 
sibility of this singular woman, married her, to the great displea- 
sure of all virtuous men, who in vain insisted on the sacred vows 
of matrimony, and the inviolable laws of friendship. From this 
alliance sprung the great Clovis. — A. D. 465. Childeric was 
considered the most accomplished man in his dominions ; he was 
endued with wit and great courage, but possessing a warm and 
generous heart, he was too susceptible of love and admiration, 
the former accelerating his premature destruction. During his 
reign Childeric had been looked upon by the Romans with an 
eye of jealous revenge, but anxious to recover the esteem of his 
subjects, he collected his army and advanced into the heart of 
Gaul, pillaged their towns, and killed with his own hands the 
Roman general, and made himself master of Paris. 

He died soon after this (A. D. 481) in the twenty-fourth year 
of his reign, and was buried in a spot of ground which is now 
enclosed in the city of Tournay. In the year 1653, the tomb of 
this eccentric prince was discovered, containing some human 
bones tolerably perfect, proving him to have been a tall and stout 
man. Also in the tomb were found a skeleton of a horse, a crys- 
tal glass, several curious pieces of gold, an ox's head, medals of 
different emperors, and a number of rings, on one of which is a 
seal, bearing the impression of a man of great beauty, holding 
a javelin in his hand. On the exergue is engraved the name of 
Childeric in Roman letters. 

A part of these curiosities are still preserved in the Royal 
Library at Paris. 



CLOVIS THE FIRST. 



A. D. 481.] The multitude of petty kingdoms subsisting in 
Gaul at this time, forms, says an illustrious historian, one of the 
greatest difficulties in the ancient history of France. In a manu- 
script work, still preserved in the king's library at Paris, it is 
imputed to the disorders which prevailed after the expulsion of 
Childeric, when such as were sufficiently powerful took advan- 
tage of the anarchy in which the nation was involved, to establish 
independent monarchies of their own. Clovis ascended the 
throne at the age of fifteen, and at the early age of twenty began 
to show his jealousy towards those whom he considered usurpers 
of his territories. His courtiers, ever ready to fan into a flame 
the spark they had discovered in the breast of their master, in- 
cited him to challenge Syagrius, a Roman who still had posses- 
sion of Soissons, and a part of the adjacent country. 

The challenge was accepted by this self-made prince, and a 
bloody battle was the result. Syagrius saved himself by flight, 
taking refuge among the Visigoths ; but AUaric, then king, fearing 
the threats of Clovis, delivered the refugee into his power who 
caused him to be beheaded. Clovis had now enjoyed several 
years of uninterrupted tranquillity, when Basinus, King of Thu- 
ringia, made a sudden irruption into that part of the dominions of 
Clovis, situated beyond the Rhine. Clovis was no sooner informed 
of this invasion, than he assembled his army, and entering the 
enemy's country, laid it waste with fire and sword, and imposed 
a perpetual tribute on the ofiending monarch. 

Clovis now bent his thoughts on the formation of an alliance 
by marriage, with some of the neighboring princes. He accord- 



24 CLOVIS THE FIRST. 

ingly dispatched his ambassadors to the King of Burgundy, asking 
for the hand of the Princess Clotildis, his niece, the accounts of 
whose extraordinary piety and beauty had made a deep impres- 
sion on his heart. 

The court of Burgundy, fearful of offending a young and power- 
ful prince, whose arms had hitherto been everywhere victorious, 
comphed with his request. 

A. D. 493.] Great preparations were made for the departure 
of the queen elect, and she began her journey in a kind of wa- 
gon, called a basterne, drawn by oxen, which was the most ele- 
gant vehicle then in use. \ 

The marriage was celebrated at Soissons, amid the joyful ac- 
clamations of the people. 

Heaven smiled on this propitious union ; Clotildis became mo- 
ther of a prince, who received baptism, with the king's consent, 
and was named Ingomer. The subsequent death of this child, 
on whom Clovis had so firmly set his affections, inspired him, 
notwithstanding the prayers and remonstrances of his affectionate 
and pious princess, with an aversion to the Christian religion. 
He was prevailed on, however, to suffer his second son to undergo 
the ceremony of baptism. He also was attacked with a severe 
indisposition, but the prayers of this pious woman were heard 
and answered, the young prince restored to health, and the 
anxiety of his father dispelled. The conversion to Christianity 
of Clovis, soon after this, is thus related by historians :- — The 
Germans had commenced preparing for incursions into the 
dominions of Clovis ; he, being apprized of their intentions, 
hastened to impede their progress, and met them on the plains 
of Tolbiac, not far from Cologne, where a bloody battle was 
fought. 

Clovis, perceiving that the strength of his army was diminishing, 
lifted up his eyes to Heaven, and exclaimed, " God of my Queen 
Clotildis, grant me victory, and I here vow to worship none 
other than you." He immediately rallied his yielding forces, 
again led the charge^ pierced with irresistible ardor the enemy's 
battalions, and entirely put them to flight. 



CLOVIS THE FIRST. 25 

He then followed them into Germany, where he dispersed 
the remains of the vanquished army, reduced to obedience a 
nation hitherto invincible, and compelled them to pay him an 
annual tribute. Faithful to his vow, he requested to 1»6 made 
acquainted with the mysteries of the Christian religion ; and on 
Christmas day, 496, received baptism at the church of St. Martin, 
in Paris, from Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, a prelate equally 
distinguished for his birth and piety. His sister Albofleda, and 
about three thousand of his subjects, followed his example. An 
improbable legend prevails, that during the ceremony of the bap- 
tism of Clovis, a dove descended from Heaven, bringing a phial 
of balsam, with which he was consecrated. 

This is what is now called La Sainte Ampoule, the Holy 
Phial ; which is kept with extreme care, and contains the oil 
used by the monarchs of France at their coronation. The con- 
version of Clovis had not repressed his warlike ambition. 

Brabant, the country of Liege, and that part of Flanders which 
was situated on the sea coast, had not yet submitted to the new 
conqueror of Gaul. 

The most considerable of these small states were the Arborici, 
a Christian nation, firmly attached to the Christian religion, and 
thence maintained an enmity against the French, who were Pa- 
gans. But the recent conversion to Christianity of Clovis, and 
so many of his subjects, diminished the aversion of the people of 
this peaceful nation ; they were induced to consent to an alliance 
with him, acknowledge him for their sovereign, and become sub- 
jects of the French kingdom. The Roman garrisons following 
the example, capitulated, and gave up all the places that were 
still in their possession, towards the ocean, and on the banks of 
the Rhine. 

Clovis did not as yet consider his victories complete ; the con- 
quest of Brittany was soon followed by that of Allaric, King of 
the Visigoths. Before the French set out on this latter expedi- 
tion, they made a vow not to shave themselves till they had sub- 
dued their enemies. Vows of this kind were very common at 



26 



CLOVIS THE FIRST. 



that period. It was the custom of those thnes to draw an omen 
from the verse that was chanting, when a person entered the 
church. The king's envoys, at their entrance into the church of 
St. Martin, heard these words from the Psalms,—" Thou hast 
endued me with strength for the wars ; thou hast supplanted those 
that had risen up against me ; and hast put mine enemies to 
flight." This fortunate prognostic was confirmed on the banks 
of the Vienne. The army was at a loss where to pass that river, 
when a hind plunged into the stream in sight of the whole camp, 
and showed them a ford which still retains the name oi the passage 
of the hind. 

The two armies met in the plains of Vouille, near Poictiers. 
Soon after the commencement of the battle, the monarchs of either 
nation perceiving each other, rushed forward at the same instant, 
and engaged in single combat; when the superior skill and 
strength of Clovis decided the victory in his favor ; he disr 
mounted his adversary, and slew him on the spot. Nothing 
now remained to impede the progress of the conqueror, who ex- 
tended his empire from the banks of the Loire to the Pyrenean 
mountains. Clovis then withdrew to Paris, and fixed his resi- 
dence in a palace in the southern part of the capital, which had 
formerly been inhabited by the emperors Julian and Valentinian 
the First. Success had hitherto attended all the plans of Clovis, 
and allowing for the ferocious and martial spirit which then pre- 
vailed, he had preserved his fame from any material pollution. 

The assembling of the council of Orleans was the last remark- 
able event of the reign of Clovis, who died the same year, A. D. 
511, at the age of forty-five, and was buried in the church of 
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which he had caused to be built. 
It has been a subject of dispute with historians, whether the mili- 
tary or the political talents of this prince were the most eminent. 
Gaul, subdued by his arms, preserved by his prudence, affords a 
proof that he was equally skillful in the cabinet and formidable in 
the field. 



CHILDEBERT THE FIRST. 



A. D. 511.] Clovis left four sons, who divided the kingdom 
into four equal parts, and then drew lots for them. Childebert 
was the third son, but Paris being the lot drawn by him, and that 
city having long since been considered the capital of the French 
empire, it has been usual only to rank such as have reigned in 
that city among the Kings of France ; (and as it has been observed 
before) to this custom we shall conform throughout the present 
work. The dominions of Childebert extended along the sea coast 
from Picardy to the Pyrenean mountains. The dominions of 
Thierri, who was King of Metz, comprehended the country of the 
Albigenses, Rouergue, Auvergne, all the frontiers of Provence and 
Languedoc, Champagne, and the electorates of Treves, Mayence, 
and Cologne. 

Beauce, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Berry, formed those of 
Clodomir, who was King of Orleans. Clotaire, who was King of 
Soissons, possessed less extensive dominions than his brothers ; 
they comprehended all that country between Champagne, the Isle 
of France, Normandy, the ocean, and the Scheldt. But though 
these four states were governed by different princes, independent 
of each other, they were all subject to the same laws, and formed 
but one monarchial body. The princes and nobles of the four 
kingdoms assembled together at Paris, the capital, from time to 
time, where they settled the general affairs of the nation, and 
decided such suits of law as concerned the empire, either by the 
importance of the object of dispute, or by the quaUty of the par- 
ties. The first four years of the reign of these princes were 
neither disturbed by foreign war or domestic commotion. 



28 CHILDEBERT THE FIRST, 

A, D. 523.] Sigismund, King of Burgundy, having unjustly 
detained possessions, the property of Clotildis, mother to the three 
princes, Thierri, Clodomir, and Clotaire, they declared war against 
him, seized his dominions, and after having overcome him in a 
pitched battle, caused him, his wife and children to be massacred, 
and thrown into a well— a punishment but too frequent in those 
barbarous times. Gondemar, brother to the murdered monarch, 
re-entered Burgundy, and re-took the kingdom, when Clodomir, 
King of Orleans, assisted by Thierri his brother, advanced against 
him, and defeated his army at Veseronce, in the neighborhood of 
Vienne. But his extreme eagerness in pursuing the enemy, car- 
rying him too far into the country, Clodomir was surprised by a 
party of Burgundians, who attacked and slew him. 

Thus perished the youthful Clodomir, in the midst of victory. 
Some years after, his three brothers revenged his death by the 
entire conquest of Burgundy, which they divided between them. 
This monarchy had been founded one hundred and twenty years 
at the period of its re-union to the kingdom of France. Clodomir 
left three sons, brought up under the care and inspection of their 
virtuous grandmother, where they would undoubtedly have enjoyed 
that felicity, every essential requisite for which they possessed, 
but for the cruelty and ambition of their uncles. 

These princes having, by artifice, got their nephews into their 
power, immediately threw off the mask of affection which they 
had hitherto worn, and sent a sword and a pair of scissors to 
Clotildis, the guardian of their youth. That princess, in a trans- 
port of grief, inconsiderately exclaimed, that she would rather 
see them committed to the earth, than shut up in a convent. Her 
words were but too faithfully reported to Clotaire, who, seizing the 
eldest, then only in his eleventh year, dashed him to the ground, 
and plunged a poniard into his breast; the youngest, affrighted, 
threw himself at the feet of Childebert, exclaiming "save me, 
dearest uncle! save me!" The monarch was deeply affected, 
and could not restrain his tears ; but Clotaire, reproaching him 
with his weakness, tore the child from his arms, and murdered 



CHILDEBERT THE FIRST, 2& 

him on the body of his brother; the third had the good fortune to 
escape the fury of this barbarian ; he spent some years in obscurity 
under the protection of friends of his father, then retiring to a 
convent devoted his life to the service of his God, and is at pre- 
sent invoked under the name of Saint Cloud. 

At this time incursions were made into the kingdom of Metz, 
by Cochiliac, a Danish prince : Thierri was obliged to send a con- 
siderable army, which he entrusted to his son Theodebert, then 
but a youth. 

This young hero overtook the Danish prince just as he was 
going to embark his forces, which he attacked and overcame, and 
slew their leader with his own hand. 

It appears from historians of those times, that so early as this 
period France had a navy, since we are told that the French fleet 
took that of the Danes and released all the French prisoners. 

A. D. 534.] Thierri died, leaving his son Theodebert heir to 
the kingdom of Metz. There was nothing of mediocrity in the 
character of Thierri, As a king, prompt and decisive in all his 
undertakings; as a man, licentious and unrestrained in the grati- 
fication of his passions — never did a monarch exercise autho- 
rity more absolute — never did a politician pay less regard to the 
laws of honor and the rights of humanity. 

Already had Childebert and Clotaire adopted measures for 
dismembering the succession of Thierri, and were preparing to 
enforce them, when the young prince hastened to Metz, and by 
presenting himself to his subjects, defeated the perfidious schemes 
of his uncles. 

Being anxious to become the favorite of his subjects, he caused 
medals to be made, on which he was represented not only with all 
the marks of imperial dignity, but with the appellation of " Lord," 
and "August," He had laid many plans and schemes which 
were never brought to maturity ; this prince, the most accom- 
plished of all the descendants of Clovis, died from the accidental 
fall of a tree. Beneficent, humane, and alive to the miseries of 
his people, he had nothing of that ferocity in his disposition which 



30 CHILDEBERT THE FIRST. 

dishonors the memory of his grandfather, his father and his uncles. 
Adored by his subjects, courted by his neighbors, and feared by 
his enemies, never did a monarch more ably maintain the dignity 
of his crown. During the last ten years of his life, Childebert 
had suffered both in body and mind from the commotions caused 
by the jealousy of his brother : this, and the murder of his ne- 
phews, appeared at times almost to deprive him of reason. He died 
in the forty-seventh year of his reign, and his loss was severely 
felt by every class of his people. 

The nobility lost a chief, the affability of whose manners, and 
the plenitude of whose goodness, captivated every heart ; the peo- 
ple had to regret an equitable sovereign, who governed them with 
wisdom and moderation ; and religion lost a protector of unbounded 
zeal. 

A number of monasteries and hospitals, built and founded with 
a magnificence truly royal ; a decree published by his authority 
for the abolition of idols, and images consecrated to the devil 
throughout his dominions ; and four councils assembled by his 
order during his reign, one at Orleans, one at Aries, and two at 
Paris, are exhibited by historians as so many illustrious monu- 
ments of the piety of this monarch. 

He was buried in the church of Saint Vincent, now Saint Ger- 
maine des Pr&s, where his tomb is still to be seen. 




x^ 





x-'':-\^ 





// 





//.■/,. ^y/W,v/yr-.>r-. 



CLOTAIEE THE FIKST. 



A. D. 558.] The King of Soissons, having survived his three 
brothers, now became sole monarch of all France. He expe- 
rienced the insufficiency of power, however extensive, of dignity, 
however illustrious, to secure the mind from mortification and 
chagrin. 

This unhappy father was obliged to take up arms against a 
son on whom he had in a peculiar degree bestowed his affections. 
This son joined the Britons and marched against his father, but 
during a severe contest, in which the Britons were defeated, he 
was sacrificed to the resentment of an offended parent. He was 
taken prisoner and executed on the spot by his father's orders, 
and the offences of the father were extended to his whole family ; 
his wife and three children were strangled and then burnt, to 
satisfy the fiendish passions of Clotaire. After this victory, fol- 
lowed by such acts of inhumanity, Clotaire passed the remainder 
of his life in the deepest melancholy, sometimes bordering on 
distraction. 

He died at Compeigne in the fifty-first year of his age, and 
fourth of a reign, marked by a series of actions, from the con- 
templation of which humanity shrinks with disgust, by adultery, 
cruelty, assassination, and every species of barbarous violence. 
It has been remarked that his death happened exactly a year 
after his son's execution, on the same day, and at the same hour. 
He was interred in the church of St. Medard, at Soissons, which 
he had begun, and which his son Sigebert completed. He left 
four sons, who succeeded to his dominions ; Caribert, Gontran, 
Chilperic, and Sigebert. 



CARIBERT. 



A. D. 562.] France was once more divided into four king- 
doms, whose limits were different to those of its former divisions. 
But before the division was completed, a quarrel arose between 
the children of Clotaire. Chilperic insisted on having the capital 
of the empire ; and profiting by the absence of his brothers, he 
took possession of Braine, a country seat, where his father kept 
all his treasures, which he seized and distributed among the 
leading men of the nation ; then, placing himself at their head, 
he repaired to Paris, where he compelled the inhabitants to ac- 
knowledge him for their sovereign. The other princes, enraged 
at this proceeding, raised troops, besieged him in his new capital, 
obliged him to descend from the throne he had usurped, and 
forced him to abide by the usual mode of decision, by drawing 
lots; which proved unfavorable to him. 

Caribert was accordingly proclaimed King of Paris ; Gontran, 
of Burgundy ; Sigebert, of Austrasia, and Chilperic, of Soissons. 

This contest for the succession was no sooner terminated, 
than Sigebert received intelligence that the Huns or Hungarians, 
had made incursions into that part of his dominions which was 
situated beyond the Rhine. He immediately hastened to give 
them battle, and met them in Thuringia, where they had excited 
the people to revolt. A celebrated historian of those days re- 
marks, that this young prince placed himself foremost in the 
ranks, and with his battle-axe, charged the enemy with an heroic 
intrepidity, overthrew all that came in his way, and obtained a 
complete victory. The victorious Sigebert now thought of form- 
mg a matrimonial connection, suitable to his birth and dignity ; 
with this view, he fixed on Brunehaut, Princess of the Visigoths, 



CARIBERT. 33 

who passed for the most accomplished princess of her age. The 
proposals were favorably received ; the new queen accordingly- 
arrived at Metz, amidst the acclamations of the people ; and the 
marriage was celebrated with all possible magnificence. Some 
time after, she abjured Arianism ; and her public reconciliation 
to the church, crowned the happiness of the king and his sub- 
jects. Chilperic, moved by the example of his brother, sent to 
ask the hand of Galswinda, Brunehaut's eldest sister. But a 
knowledge of his disposition, excited scruples in the mind of her 
father, which were not easily removed. By dint of solicitation, 
however, he at length gave his consent, but he first exacted an 
oath from the ambassadors, sent to solicit the hand of the prin- 
cess, that no other woman should enjoy the title and dignity of 
queen, during the life of his daughter : this they promised by 
drawing and shaking their swords ; which was customary with 
the ancient Franks, whenever they engaged themselves by oath, 
to observe any promise. The new queen set out from Toledo, 
loaded with riches, and arrived at Rouen in a round car of solid 
silver. 

At that city her new subjects took the oath of fidelity to her ; 
either because such was the custom of those times, or because 
her father had insisted on it in order to procure her greater respect 
from the nation. When the king married her he settled on her 
as her dowry, the provinces of Bordelois, Limousin, Quiercy, 
Beam, and Bigorre. Although Chilperic entertained the greatest 
respect for the virtue of his bride, he soon permitted the flames 
of lawless love to rekindle in his bosom. The queen com- 
plained of his inconstancy to an assembly of the states ; and 
the nation obliged the king to swear that he would in future be 
faithful to his marriage vows ; but a few days after they had ex- 
acted this oath from him, Galswinda was found dead in her bed. 

Fredegonda, a woman of great beauty, but who was still more 

vicious than handsome, was suspected of her death, and when 

she was seen to occupy the place and the throne of her rival, 

those suspicions were converted into certainty. These alliances, 

3 



43 CARIBERT. 

SO degrading to majesty, were but too common in the family of 
Clotaire. Caribert repudiated Ingoberga, to marry the daughter 
of an artizan ; and she was afterwards obliged to give place to 
her own sister, Marcovesa, who had taken the veil. And, lastly, 
Theudegilda, the daughter of a simple shepherd, was raised to 
the first throne in the empire of France. This conduct induced 
Germanus, Bishop of Paris, to excommunicate Caribert. The 
popes had not yet interfered in these delicate matters ; each pre- 
late had absolute power in his own diocese. If any offence 
against religion was committed, it came under the cognizance of 
the bishop of the diocese. If any dispute arose on points of 
belief or discipline, they were determined by a national council, 
under the authority of the king, and if any privileges or dispen- 
sations were to be determined, this decision rested with the as- 
sembly of the bishops of the provinces. Caribert reigned six 
years. Gregory of Tours only speaks of his vices. But For- 
tunatus represents him as a prince of great prudence, moderation, 
and suavity of manners. 

He encouraged literature and the sciences, and spoke Latin 
with as much fluency as his native tongue. 

Zealous in his efforts to enforce a due observance of the laws, 
his time was wholly devoted to the purpose of promoting the 
happiness and tranquillity of his subjects. Ever peaceably 
disposed, but jealous of his power, he preserved his authority 
with equal dignity and firmness. This prince only left three 
daughters : Bertha, who married Ethelbert, King of Kent, in Eng- 
land, the other two took the veil at Tours, and ended their lives 
in a convent. His dominions were divided between his bro- 
thers, each of whom was anxious to possess Paris, but it was 
determined that that city should be equally subject to all the three, 
that neither should enter it without the consent of the other two. 
They confirmed this agreement by an oath ; and in case of viola- 
tion, submitted themselves to the malediction of God, and all the 
Saints. 







//;/. (V/v/'.v/vr. 



CHILPEEIC THE FIRST. 



A. D. 567.] Although Chilperic had only one-third of the 
kmgdom, his dominions lying contiguous to the capital, historians 
place him among the kings of Paris. France, however, did not 
long enjoy the advantages that vi^ere expected to result from the 
late agreement between the three royal brothers. The death of 
Galswinda excited a civil war that seemed to threaten the destruc- 
tion of Chilperic. Sigebert and Gontran, at the pressing solicita- 
tion of Queen Brunehaut, entered into a league for the purpose 
of inflicting vengeance on the assassin of her sister. They had 
seized the greatest part of his dominions, when tranquillity and 
concord were suddenly restored, not from motives of affection, but 
interest. It was stipulated by treaty that Chilperic should cede 
to Brunehaut those domains which had been given to Galswinda 
as her dower. When this dispute was settled Sigebert found him- 
self obliged to take up arms against the Hungarians, who had 
renewed their depredations on the French territories beyond the 
Rhine. The expedition proved unfortunate. 

The king, abandoned by his soldiers, was surrounded by the 
enemy and taken prisoner. He was a prince of extraordinary 
prudence, and his person was peculiarly calculated to conciliate 
esteem : his liberality overcame those whom his arms could not 
subdue : the barbarians, won by his munificence, restored him to 
liberty, entered into an alliance with him, swore never to molest 
him more, and loaded him with marks of their friendship and 
kindness. During these transactions beyond the Rhine, the Lom- 
bards, who had recently founded a new kingdom in Italy, made 



36 CHILPERIC THE FIRST. 

an irruption into Burgundy, defeated and slew the governor, cut 
the army of Gontran in pieces, and repassed the Alps with an 
immense booty. At this engagement an incident occurred which, 
at that time, was unexampled. Salonus and Sagittarius, both of 
them bishops, the first of Embrun, the second of Gap, changed their 
mitres for helmets, and charged the enemy sword in hand, with 
an intrepidity that in a soldier would have excited the warmest 
commendation, but which was universally censured in a prelate. 

At this time Sigebert perished by the hand of an assassin. A 
prince generous, liberal and beneficent, no sovereign ever estab- 
lished a more extensive sway over his subjects. Intrepid in the 
hour of danger, and unshaken by adversity, he had the art, even 
in captivity, to conciliate the respect and affection of a conqueror, 
who scarcely possessed the appearance of humanity. In man- 
ners chaste, his inclinations conformed to his situation. Sigebert 
died in the forty-first year of his age, and the fifteenth of his 
reign. He was buried in the church of Saint Medard, at Soissons, 
where his figure may still be seen on his tomb. He is there re- 
presented with a long coat, and that species of cloak which the 
Romans called chlamys. This dress was worn by all the chil- 
dren of Clovis, either because they thought it had a more noble 
and majestic appearance, or because they considered the title of 
" August" as hereditary in their family. Be that as it may, long 
coats were, during several centuries, peculiar to persons of distinc- 
tion ; they were generally trimmed with martin, sabre, or ermine. 
Ruffs and collars were introduced by Henry the Second ; till 
which time, most of the French monarchs had their necks entirely 
bare. 

The short coat, which was formerly confined to the country 
and the camp, became fashionable during the reign of Louis the 
Eleventh ; it was exploded in that of Louis the Twelfth ; and 
renewed under Francis the First. 

The favorite dress of Henry the Second, and his children, con- 
sisted of a close doublet, a kind of half trowsers, such as worn by 
the pages in Spain, and a short cloak that did not reach below 



CHILPERIC THE FIRST. 

the waist. The dress of the French ladies experienced as many 
revolutions as that of the men. It does not appear that they 
bestowed much pains on the decoration of their persons, till 
towards the conclusion of the ninth century. Their head-dress 
was extremely simple, and their linen plain but fine. Lace was 
long unknown to them. Their gowns, which were adorned on 
one side with the arms of their husbands, and on the other with 
those of their own family, were made to sit close to the body, 
and so high as to entirely cover the bosom. The widows' dress 
greatly resembled that of a nun. They did not begin to expose 
their shoulders to sight till the reign of Charles the Sixth. During 
the gallant reign of Charles the Seventh, bracelets, necklaces and 
ear-rings were introduced. Anne of Brittany rejected with dis- 
dain all those frivolous embellishments, while Catharine de Me- 
dicis was incessantly employed in the invention of new decora- 
tions ; vanity, luxury, caprice and coquetry at length carried them 
to the height which they have now attained. After the death of 
Sigebert a sudden and complete revolution commenced ; Queen 
Brunehautandher children were arrested, and Chilperic, imagining 
that an affectation of religious zeal would avert the malediction to 
which he had subjected himself by violating the treaty of division, 
made his entry into Paris accompanied by a variety of relics 
borne in procession. But his surprise and indignation were inex- 
pressible, when he learned that the son and sole heir of Sigebert 
whom he had imprisoned, had effected his escape. Gondebald, 
one of the first nobles at the court of the deceased monarch, had 
released the infant prince from captivity. He was let down from 
the window of his prison in a basket, and received by a trusty 
person, who delivered him safe into the hands of the faithful sub- 
ject of his deceased father, by whom he was conducted to Metz. 
The great men of the kingdom assembled on Christmas day ; and 
Childebert who had scarcely attained his sixth year was crowned 
king of Austrasia. Enraged at the escape of his prisoner, and 
conceiving that the queen was privy to it, Chilperic sent her to 
Rouen, where he ordered her to be strictly guarded. His son 



38 



CHILPERIC THE FIRST. 



Merovee, a youth but in his eighteenth year, unfaithful to the orders 
of his father, and smitten with the beauty of Brunehaut, the widow 
of his assassinated uncle, repaired to Rouen and was married to 
her by Bishop Pretextatus. Fortunatus, indeed, represents her 
as a second Venus ; and the particulars into which he enters on 
this subject, prove, either that he was not yet a bishop, or that 
the prelates of those days, though irreproachable, perhaps, in their 
manners, were not very delicate in their expressions. 

Chilperic, deeply offended at the conduct of his son, repaired 
to Rouen with a determination to punish the new married couple, 
who, alarmed at his approach, took refuge in the church of Saint 
Martin, built on the ramparts of the city. 

In vain were every artifice and every stratagem exerted to 
induce them to quit their asylum ; they refused to leave it till 
they had obtained a most solemn promise, not only that no insult 
should be offered them, but that their marriage should be con- 
firmed, in case the bishops should deem it necessary. 

The king, after this accommodation, obliged Merovee to follow 
him to Soissons, and left Brunehaut his wife in her former prison, 
from where he soon after sent her into Austrasia. 

Chilperic, on the arrival of his son in Austrasia, carried his 
resentment still further : had his arms taken from him, cut off his 
hair, and after disinheriting him, obliged him to be ordained as a 
priest and retire to a convent. He did not remain long, however, 
in his retirement, but escaping from his prison fled to the church 
of Saint Martin at Tours ; and Chilperic, finding all his efforts to 
make him quit this sanctuary fruitless and unavailing, at length 
determined to remove him by force. He wrote on this subject 
to Saint Martin, whose indignation he was fearful of incurring. 
His letter, which was in the form of a consultation, was placed on 
the tomb of the saint; and the king — such were the simplicity and 
ignorance of those times ! — had the precaution to send a piece of 
plain paper with it, on which he hoped the blessed pontiff would 
write his decision. But the saint did not honor him with an 
answer, and the paper being found in statu quo, at the expi- 



CHILPERIC THE FIRST. 39 

ration of three days, the superstitious monarch abandoned his 
design. 

Merovee, on his part, implored the protection of the same 
saint, against the rage and machinations of his father. He con- 
jured him to point out his fate, by such passages of Scripture as 
he should open on by chance ; but not one of them proved favor- 
able. All, says the historian, from whom we take this account, 
foretold that he would die a violent death. The unhappy prince, 
after this fatal prediction, was a stranger to rest and tranquillity. 
A fugitive, wandering about the country — passing from Touraine 
to Austrasia, and from Champagne to Artois ; abandoned by his 
wife, whose affection for him was sincere, but was totally unable 
to serve him ; persecuted by his father ; and betrayed by those 
who had sworn to espouse his cause, he was assassinated by per- 
sons in the pay of his stepmother, Fredegonda, third wife of 
Chilperic, his father. This queen carried her revenge still far- 
ther ; she had not forgotten the affection that formerly subsisted 
between Pretextatus and Merovee ; and she was determined to 
^procure the deposition of that prelate. It is difficult to say, 
which was the most calculated to excite astonishment — the situ- 
ation of the king, who appeared as his accuser, or that of the 
fathers, who were greatly embarrassed to find any cause for re- 
prehension in the conduct of a bishop who had married an aunt 
to her nephew. 

One might be tempted to conclude, either that such marriages 
were not prohibited by the ancient canons, or that the eccle- 
siastics were persuaded the ordinary had a right to grant dispen- 
sations. Our surprise is still greater when we reflect on the 
weakness of the party accused; who, at the instigation of some 
pretended friends, confessed himself guilty of crimes which he 
had never committed. But our astonishment is at its height, 
when we see the king throwing himself at the feet of the pre- 
lates, his vassals, to sue for the condemnation of one of his 
subjects. 

He wished to have his robes torn off in full council, and to 



40 CHILPERIC THE FIRST. 

have the maledictions contained in the 108th Psalm, repeated to 
him ; or, at least, to have a sentence of eternal excommunication 
pronounced against him. But none of his requests were granted. 
The bishop, however, was condemned on his own confession, 
committed to prison, and afterwards banished. 

On the death of Chilperic, he was recalled by the King of 
Burgundy, and reinstated in his diocese, in spite of Fredegonda, 
who, in revenge, had him stabbed in the midst of divine service. 
In consequence of this horrid murder, all the churches in Rouen 
were shut; the bishops, who were there, forbade the celebration of 
the holy eucharist, till such time as the author of that sacrilegious 
deed should be discovered. This is the first instance of such an 
interdiction in ancient days. 

But the assassination of Merovee and the condemnation of 
Pretextatus, only served as a prelude to the enormities of Frede- 
gonda. 

Chilperic had one son by his first wife still living, Clovis, 
whom this cruel stepmother was resolved to sacrifice to the 
elevation of her own children. The means she employed were» 
that he should be accused with Gregory of Tours, of forming a 
conspiracy to assassinate his father Chilperic, make away with 
the children he had by Fredegonda, and place himself, Clovis, on 
the throne. Fredegonda, having lately lost three children by the 
dysentery, she bribed some persons to swear that Clovis had caused 
them to be poisoned. Under these accusations he was arrested, 
and imprisoned in the castle of Noisy, where he was soon mur- 
dered ; his mother Audovera experienced a similar fate, the 
sacredness of her retreat being insufficient to preserve her from 
the rage of this female monster. Gregory, however, soon cleared 
himself from these odious imputations ; his accusers being put 
to the torture, confessed that this intrigue was entirely without 
foundation, and was set on foot to take the life of Clovis. 

The writers of those times tell us that these cruel deeds were 

followed by the most evident proofs of the anger of Heaven 

by earthquakes, inundations, conflagrations, famine, epidemic 



CHILPERIC THE FIRST. 41 

diseases, and a total subversion of nature, which made flowers 
bloom in January, and grapes ripen in December. Chilperic 
now began to feel the effects of a life of infamy and disgrace. 

He shut himself up in Cambray, with all his treasures ; he 
rarely appeared at the head of his army, and never undertook any 
expedition of importance. Having gone to pass some days at a 
favorite country seat called Chelles, he was stabbed on his return 
and expired on the spot. Fredegonda is said to have been the 
instigator of this horrid deed. 

The fact related, and agreed to by historians of those days, is 
this : Chilperic visited the queen's chamber at an hour when 
she did not expect him. On hearing some one approach, and 
supposing it to be Landry, with whom she had long been sus- 
pected, she made use of some expressions which discovered the 
intrigue to her husband, the king. Chilperic left the room 
abruptly, and appeared to be involved in thought. Fredegonda 
sent for her lover, whom she informed of what had passed, and 
in order to elude the punishment he was conscious of deserving, 
he determined to murder his sovereign. Thus perished the Nero 
of the French empire, which he exposed to every kind of cala- 
mity ; the executioner of his family, which he seemed intent on 
exterminating ; and the tyrant of his subjects, whom he so loaded 
with taxes that they w^ere compelled to abandon their posses- 
sions. 

Every acre of vines paid a barrel of wine; a poll-tax was 
levied not only on every slave, but on every free person ; and no 
kind of effects whatever was exempt from imports. 

Not that these tributes were absolute innovations ; the chief 
part of the revenues of the first kings of France consisted of 
provisions and effects, which were levied in the same manner as 
tithes are now ; but Chilperic had prodigiously augmented them. 
He was tyrannically avaricious of money, and ostentatiously mag- 
nificent in his furniture and equipages ; voluptuous even to de- 
bauchery, his incontinence knew no bounds; and if he was 
faithful at last to Fredegonda, his fidelity was rather the effect of 



42 CHILPERIC THE FIRST. 

fear than of duty; superstitious, yet impious, he scarcely believed 
in God, whose ministers were to him objects of incessant raillery, 
though his respect for Saint Martin, and his fear of offending him, 
were inexpressibly great. Vain, presumptuous, and rash, he 
dared to sound the depths of religious mysteries, and to submit 
them to the feeble and inadequate standard of human reason ; in 
consequence of which he had planned an edict to prohibit any 
distinction of persons in the Trinity. But the vigilant and intre- 
pid zeal of Gregory of Tours, and of Sivin, Bishop of Albi, in- 
duced him, though not without great difficulty, to suppress it. At 
the death of this prince, a striking example was exhibited of the 
little reliance to be placed by kings on the homage of an idolatrous 
court. The incense of countries is offered to their rank, and not 
to their persons ; while adoration hangs on the lip, contempt and 
hatred sit enthroned on the heart. The body of Chilperic, for- 
saken by every one, would have remained on the spot where he 
was killed, but for the interference of Malulfus, Bishop of Senlis, 
who had it conveyed to Paris, where it was interred in the church 
of St. Germain des Pres. He left but one son, an infant of four 
months, who succeeded him under the name of Clotaire. He had 
three wives ; Audo vera, whom he repudiated; Gals winda, found 
dead in her bed ; and Fredegonda, who plunged him into an abyss 
of crimes and enormities. 



CLOTAIRE THE SECOND. 



A. D. 584.] On the death of Chilperic, Fredegonda, solely 
relying for protection upon her infant of four months old, fled to 
Paris, where she was received by the bishop of the metropolis, 
who placed her in his church, as a retreat that would secure 
her from the resentment of her enemies. As a protection Frede- 
gonda was declared regent and protectress of the young prince, 
who was crowned King of France. This privilege was always 
enjoyed by the queen dowagers. Brunehaut, under Childebert 
the Second; Batilda, under Clotaire the Third; Nantilda, under 
Clovis the Second ; Alice, of Champagne, under Philip the August ; 
Blanche of Castile, under Saint Louis; and Louisa of Savoy, 
under Francis the First, governed the state with absolute power, 
during the minority or absence of their royal children. But this 
custom has long since passed from the French throne. 

Fredegonda, shuddering at the recollection of her crimes, de- 
tested by her subjects, whom she had oppressed without mercy ; 
devoid of confidence in her nobles, who openly censured her 
conduct; pursued by Childebert, King of Austrasia, who called 
for justice on the assassin of a father, an aunt, an uncle, and two 
cousins ; she wrote to Gontran, King of Burgundy, to solicit his 
participation in the guardianship of her son. 

This prince, touched with compassion, hastened to the capital 
of the French empire, where he took the infant Clotaire under 
his protection, and openly declared himself in favor of Frede- 
gonda against Childebert, King of Austrasia, his nephew. 

After this Childebert was forbidden to enter Paris ; one of his 
ambassadors, who had been so bold as to threaten Fredegonda 



44 CLOTAIRE THE SECOND. 

with the law of retaliation, was sent back in disgrace ; and his 
designs on Tours and Poictiers, which had formerly belonged to 
his father, were frustrated. Those cities, constrained to yield to 
a superior force, took an oath of fidelity to Gontran, who was 
considered as guardian to the young monarch and head of the 

nation. 

But the oppressive conduct of Fredegonda, and the indolence 
of Gontran soon interrupted the tranquillity of France. Frede- 
gonda, whose mind was ever fertile in projects of cruelty, and 
who could always find assassins to put them in execution, hired 
two ecclesiastics to murder Childebert, King of Austrasia, with 
poisoned poniards. 

The wretches were apprehended, and being put to the torture, 
confessed the crime they intended to commit. Even Gontran, the 
friend of Fredegonda, and the guardian and protector of her son, 
was not exempt from her abominable machinations. As he was 
going into chapel one day to matins, he surprised an assassin 
whom she had sent there to poniard him. Another time, as he 
was going to receive the sacrament, a man advanced towards him 
— ^but either from remorse of conscience, or respect for majesty, 
he let the poniard fall from his hand. He was immediately 
seized, and confessed his execrable design ; but having been taken 
in a church, he could not be punished; — as if the right of a 
sanctuary could be extended to the man who violates its sacred- 
ness by the most detestable parricide ! 

The failure of so many diabolical attempts was insufficient to 
deter Fredegonda from persisting in her murderous efforts. In- 
trepid in evil, she appeared to acquire fresh force from disappoint- 
ment, and when one project was marred, another of greater im- 
portance was immediately formed. 

The death of Childebert and his mother was again resolved 
on ; and the success of this scheme appeared the more infallible, 
as she had engaged three of the principal nobles of his court to 
join in its execution: but that prince being so fortunate as to dis- 
cover the plot, the conspirators met the fate they deserved. Rau- 



CLOTAIRE THE SECOND. 45 

cingiis, who called himself the natural son of Clotaire the Fh'st, 
was stabbed just as he had quitted the king's apartment, whither 
he had been summoned on pretence of business. Ursion was 
slain after a bold resistance, and Berthefred, though protected by 
Brunehaut, was murdered in a chapel whither he had fled for 
shelter. 

Ozidius, Bishop of Rheims, was suspected of being an accom- 
plice in this conspiracy against Childebert, but possessing the arts 
of intrigue and persuasion in an eminent degree, he acquired such 
an ascendency over the king, that he eluded the punishment due 
to his crime. He, however, attempted another conspiracy soon 
after the first, in which he was detected, tried, and pronounced 
guilty ; and though the crime of which he stood convicted was 
of the deepest dye, yet exile and confiscation formed only its 
punishment. The christening of the young Clotaire took place 
about this time, he being now six years of age, and was one 
of the last events of importance in the regency and reign of 
Gontran, who died at Chalons upon Saone, in the sixty-first year 
of his age. Destitute of that vigor and firmness which are es- 
sential to the enforcement of authority, the schemes of Gontran 
were not unfrequently marred by those whom he appointed to 
superintend their execution. 

His disposition was rather more calculated to encourage licen- 
tiousness than to command veneration, for though he professed to 
love his subjects, he had not sufficient resolution to secure them 
from the oppression of his ministers. Gontran was fond of litera- 
ture, and master of several languages. 

At Orleans he was harangued in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and 
Latin. The death of Gontran did not appear at first to effect any 
material change in the French empire. Childebert, King of 
Austrasia, took possession of Orleans and Burgundy without op- 
position. His title to those territories was founded on the adop- 
tion of his uncle ; on the famous treaty of Andelaw, by which 
the crown was settled on him, in default of male heirs ; and, 
lastly, on the will of the deceased monarch, who left him sole 



4G CLOTAIRE THE SECOND. 

heir to ail his dominions. Young Clotaire at the same time was put 
in possession of all his father's rights ; and Soissons, which had 
put itself under the dominion of Childebert, was nevertheless 
restored to the son of Chilperic. 

Childebert, no longer restrained by the fear of Gontran, now 
gave a free scope to his just resentment against the family of 
Chilperic. 

The death of a father, assassinated by the emissaries of Fre- 
degonda; the danger to which he himself had been exposed, 
together with the queen his mother ; a thousand perfidious attempts 
upon his life ; the doubtful circumstances attending the birth of 
Clotaire ; ambition, interest — all excited him to attack a prince, 
whose death or deposition would render him sole monarch of 
France. Thus stimulated, he raised a powerful army, which he 
sent into the Soissonnois, where it committed great depredations. 
Fredegonda, who was never alarmed at danger, however great, 
had no sooner learnt that the army of Childebert had invaded the 
territories of her son, than she gave orders for assembling the army 
with the utmost expedition. Braine was appointed as the place 
of rendezvous for the troops. She reviewed them in person, 
running through the ranks with her son in her arms, and present- 
ing that last relic of the family of Chilperic, reminded them of 
the oath they had taken to defend him ; then placing herself at their 
head, she led them on to the enemy, whom they met at the village 
of Droissi, about five leagues from Soissons. 

She obtained all the honor of that celebrated day, by means of 
a stratagem, which implies almost a total ignorance of the utility 
of spies in those days. 

It was the custom both in peace and war, to suffer horses to 
graze at large, with a bell tied round their necks for the conve- 
nience of finding them again. The queen therefore ordered all 
her cavalry to supply themselves with small bells, and large 
branches of trees in full verdure ; and, thus equipped, they ad- 
vanced during the night, towards the camp of Childebert. The 
stratagem succeeded, as the Austrasians mistook them for the 



CLOTAIRE THE SECOND. 47 

horses that were feeding in the plain. The appearance of day- 
led them into a fresh error ; they thought it was a real forest, 
and did not perceive their mistake till Landry, who commanded 
under Fredegonda, had advanced so near to them, that they had 
not time to arrange themselves in order of battle ; they were of 
course defeated, with a dreadful slaughter, and the victory of Fre- 
degonda was complete. 

The victory of Droissi was insufficient to quiet the apprehen- 
sions of Fredegonda, since Childebert still remained master of 
two-thirds of the French empire ; her chief care was to increase 
the number of his enemies. She now made another attack on 
the opposite side of the kingdom of Austrasia, by engaging the 
King of the Varni to take up arms against the persecutor of her 
son. The Varni were a German nation, established on the sea 
coast, at the mouth of that branch of the Rhine which formerly 
emptied its waters into the ocean ; but which now runs by Ley- 
den, and then loses itself in the sands of Catwick. 

The intrigues of Fredegonda proved the destruction of this 
unfortunate people ; who were not only defeated by Childebert, 
but so completely exterminated, that their name was extinguished 
for ever. 

Childebert did not long survive this victory. He died a few 
months after, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, and the twentieth 
of his reign ; more regretted from the hopes which he had given 
rise to, than for the exploits which he had achieved. His queen 
died soon after. He had two children by her who succeeded 
him under the conduct of his grandmother, Brunehaut. The 
eldest, Theodebert, was crowned King of Austrasia; and the 
youngest, Thierri, had the kingdom of Burgundy ; to which were 
annexed Alsace, Sundgaw, Turgaw, and a part of Champagne. 
In this division, which had been settled by Childebert, the 
wishes of the inhabitants, particularly those of Alsace, were con- 
sulted, on account of their attachment to Thierri, who had been 
brought up amongst them, at a country seat called Marlene. 

Fredegonda had now attained the summit of prosperity; a 



48 CLOTAIRE THE SECOND. 

crown procured by the splendor of her charms, and preserved by 
the strength of her genius ; a husband restored, through her, to a 
throne which he had lost by his perfidy ; a minority conducted 
with all the art of a consummate policy ; a regency rendered 
notorious by two celebrated victories ; and a new kingdom con- 
quered and restored to her son : — all these achievements are un- 
equivocal proofs of her vigor and talents ; and proved almost 
sufficient to make her subjects forget that she was cruel, that she 
had sacrificed to her fiendish passions one great king, two vir- 
tuous queens, two heirs apparent to the throne, and an infinite 
number of people of inferior rank. It was at this moment of 
triumph and exaltation, when her arms were crowned with vic- 
tory, and her projects with success, that God called her from the 
world; as if apprehensive that the enormity of her crimes would, 
in the sight of unthinking mortals, be sunk in the splendor of 
her exploits. She was interred near her husband, in the church 
of St. Germain des Pres, where her tomb is now seen. The 
death of this formidable rival afforded leisure and opportunity 
to Brunehaut to establish universal tranquillity throughout her 
dominions. She concluded a peace with the Hungarians, who, 
after the death of Child ebert, had invaded the Austrasian terri- 
tories ; she renewed the ancient treaties with the King of Lom- 
bardy ; and she engaged the Pope to avert the difference which 
was likely to arise with regard to the valley of Aouste, and the 
country of Suza, which Gontran had taken from the empire. 
But afi"airs of state did not make her forget matters of religion. 

The sovereign pontiff, apprized of the disposition of the English 
to listen to the doctrine of Christianity, which had been greatly 
encouraged by Bertha, daughter to Caribert the First, who married 
Ethelbert, King of Kent, determined to send missionaries to pro- 
mote the promulgation of the Gospel. Brunehaut granted these 
missionaries a free passage through her dominions, sent some 
French papists, who understood both English and Latin, to ac- 
company them, facilitated their journey to Canterbury, and pro- 
tected them so efi'ectually, that, according to Pope Gregory, after 



CLOTAIRE THE SECOND. 49 

God, England is indebted to her for its conversion to Chris- 
tianity. 

It was not long before the flames of war began to rage with ad- 
ditional fury throughout the empire of France. It is not known 
whether a desire to recover Paris induced Theodebert and Thierri 
to arm ; or whether Clotaire, elated with success, endeavored 
to extend his conquests. 

But it is certain, that this last monarch had entered upon the 
territories of Burgundy, before a junction had been formed between 
the armies of the two brothers. An action took place at a village 
called Dormeil, upon Quesne, near Sens, which terminated in favor 
of Theodebert and Thierri. 

Clotaire, obliged to retreat, fled first to Melun, afterwards to 
Paris, till the places that he had reduced after the batfle of Seufao 
were retaken and sacked ; and he was at length compelled to 
sue for peace ; which was granted him on very hard terms. He 
was obliged to cede to the King of Burgundy all the towns in his 
possession, which lay between the Loire, the Seine, the sea, 
and the frontiers of Brittany; and to the Austrasian monarch, he 
gave up the Duchy of Dentellenus, which comprised, according 
to the most probable opinion, that extent of country which is 
situated between the Aisne, the Oise, the Seine, and the ocean, 
and which nearly forms the present Isle of France. 

He only preserved for himself twelve districts between the 
sea, and the Oise, and the Seine ; by which means he was con- 
sidered as a prince who had been stripped of his dominions, and 
was reduced to a simple appanage for subsistence. 

Clotaire died soon after, in the forty-sixth year of his age, and 
was interred at Paris, in the church of Saint Germain des Pres. 
He had three wives, and left two sons, Dagobert and Aribert ; 
Dagobert the eldest, succeeded him on the throne. It cannot be 
denied, that Clotaire possessed many good qualities. 

He was certainly a valiant and brave prince ; well versed in 
the art of governing ; popular, afl^able, charitable to the poor, and 
a zealous protector of the ministers of religion. 
4 



DAGOBERT THE FIRST. 



He had banished the Bishop of Sens, for his attachment to the 
family of Thierri; but hearing of his piety and merit, he recalled 
him, and inviting him to court, there begged his pardon, placed 
him at his own table, and loaded him with presents. He had a 
cultivated mind, was fond of the Belles Lettres, and piqued him- 
self on his politeness and gallantry. 



DAGOBEET THE EIRST. 



A. D. 628.] The news of Clotaire's death had no sooner 
reached the court of Austrasia than Dagobert exerted all the arts 
of a refined policy to get himself acknowledged sole king of 
France, to the exclusion of his brother Aribert. 

He immediately dispatched into Burgundy and Neustria, such 
of his ministers as he knew to be most capable of insinuating 
themselves into the good graces of the inhabitants of those king- 
doms, and of procuring their votes in his favor. This ambitious 
monarch did not trust entirely to intrigue ; he raised a power- 
ful army, and placing himself at its head, advanced as far as 
Rheims. 

He there found all the Burgundian nobles and prelates, who 
had come for the purpose of taking the oath of fidelity to him ; 
and their example was soon followed by the Neustrians. 

Brunulf, brother to Aribert's mother, in vain attempted to op- 
pose a resolution so hostile to the interests of his nephew ; he 
was constrained to yield to necessity, and came with Aribert 
himself, to do homage to the new sovereign. This was an open 
violation of the laws of the realm, which had ever admitted all 



DAGOBERT THE FIRST. 

the children of the French monarchs to a share in the kingdom. 
But, unfortunately, the most just cause is not always the most 
successful. The good qualities of young Aribert at length 
shone forth so conspicuously, that the nobles began to pity his 
hard fate. 

The wisest members of the council, fearing that this compas- 
sion might prove fatal to Dagobert, advised that monarch to form 
certain provinces into a kingdom, and cede it to Aribert. He 
accordingly gave his brother the Toulousian, Quercy, Agenois, 
Perigord, Saintonge, and all that country which lies between the 
Garonne and the Pyrenees. 

But they obliged him to renounce all pretensions to the rest of 
the French monarchy. 

Aribert, having assumed the title of King of Aquitaine, set out 
immediately for his new dominions, of which Toulouse was the 
capital. He lived there with splendor, subdued the Gascons, 
who had revolted, and supported with glory the honor of royalty. 

The commencement of Dagobert's reign was distinguished 
by the most wise and equitable measures. The kingdom of 
Burgundy was desolated through the oppression of the nobles, 
who, profiting by the timid indulgence of Clotaire, had exercised 
every species of tyranny over their unfortunate vassals. The new 
monarch repaired thither in all the pomp of majesty, and visited 
them, listening to the complaints of the widow and orphan, and of 
every one whose poverty or insignificance had rendered them 
most liable to oppression. 

He administered strict justice to all, and every crime was pun- 
ished with an inflexible severity, without any distinction of rank 
or station. He was loaded with the benedictions of the poor; 
a thousand praises were bestowed on the ministers who advised 
him to pursue such prudent measures ; and to see a young mo- 
narch, so much occupied in discharging the duties of his office 
as scarcely to allow himself time to eat his meals, aflx)rded a theme 
for universal admiration. But amid these acts of justice, he com- 
mitted one of a very different description. 



52 DAGOBERT THE FIRST. 

Brunulf, Aribert's uncle, to avoid giving offence, had followed 
Dagobert into Burgundy, where that prince caused him to he 
arrested, and though he had nothing to accuse him of, he basely 
ordered him to be put to death, and three noblemen of his court 
were base enough to execute his orders. The king returned to 
Paris, and soon after repudiated his wife, Gomatnide, under pre- 
tence of sterility, and married Nantilda, one of her maids of 
honor. 

But even this second connection was insufficient to fix his 
volatile disposition. 

No longer restrained by the prudent councils of Bishop Arnoul, 
who, wearied out by a continual repetition of ineffectual remon- 
strances, had at length obtained permission to retire from court, 
the voluptuous Dagobert, hurried away by the impetuosity of 
youth, gave a loose to his passions, and lived a life of licentious- 
ness. 

Impelled by vanity, rather than actuated by any desire of ad- 
ministering justice to the inhabitants, he resolved on a journey 
to Austrasia, where he displayed all the pomp and magnificence 
of which he was so fond ; appearing everywhere in his royal 
vestments, attended by the chief nobles of Neustria and Bur- 
gundy. 

A young Austrasian, whose name was Ragnetrude, once more 
.gained his affections. By her he had one son, afterwards so 
celebrated under the appellation of Saint Sigebert. 

The magnificence displayed at the court of Dagobert exceeded 
everything which had hitherto been seen in the French empire. 

The king had a throne of solid gold ; and that precious metal, 
with diamonds and other valuable stones, appears to have been 
very common among the nobles and courtiers at this period. 
The French were indebted for these articles of luxury, partly to 
their commerce with the eastern empire, and partly to their Ita- 
lian conquests. The tranquillity which France had enjoyed for 
a length of time, which, in those days of commotion and revolt, 
was considered extraordinary, was now suddenly interrupted 



DAGOBERT THE FIRST. 53 

by a merchant, formerly a subject of the Gallic monarchs, but 
lately promoted to the sovereignty of a powerful nation. This 
man, whose name was Samo, had left home in company with 
several of his countrymen, for the purpose of traffic with the 
Sclavonians ; a people that occupied not only that country, but 
also Bosnia, Dalmatia, Croatia, and a part of Bohemia. The 
subject of the quarrel was an insult offered to certain French 
merchants, who had, according to custom, gone to traffic with 
the Sclavonians. Those barbarians, in violation of the rio-hts of 

to 

nations, had seized their merchandize, and murdered such as 
attempted to defend their property. Dagobert demanded repara- 
tion for the injury, but in vain,— Samo even refused an audience 
to his ambassadors. Dagobert at length determined to give the 
crown of Austrasia to his son Sigebert, M'ho had not yet attained 
his fourth year ; he assigned him a revenue sufficient for the 
support of his regal dignity, and appointed two persons to attend 
him, who were celebrated for their wisdom and prudence. This 
step was attended with all those beneficial consequences which 
he expected to derive from it. 

The Austrasians, having now a king of their own, imagined they 
had recovered their ancient liberty, and prosecuted the war with 
vigor and effect. The Sclavonians, repulsed on both sides, re- 
frained from their depredations, and kept within the bounds of 
their own dominions. 

But the satisfaction experienced by the Austrasians on this 
event was somewhat allayed by another measure of Dagobert's 
the following year. By the advice of St. Amand, whom he had 
recalled from banishment, hc/had restored Nantilda, whom he had 
repudiated, to his affections, and had a son named Clovis. 

Fearing that this young prince might meet with the same in- 
justice as Aribert, he took every precaution that prudence could 
inspire, to insure him the crown of France after his death. With 
this view, he assembled the nobles of the three kingdoms at Paris, 
and declared to them his intention of appointing Clovis his suc- 
cessor to all he now possessed; at the same time insuring to 



54 CLOVIS THE SECOND. 

Sigebert those provinces of which he was king, with the addition 
of part of Champagne, Ardennes, and Vosge. 

The Austrasian nobles could with difficulty be prevailed on to 
consent to this division of the kingdom, but the rest of the assem- 
bly, declaring strongly in favor of it, they were compelled to 
withdraw their resistance, and place their seals to Sigebert's re- 
nunciation of Burgundy and Neustria. Dagobert, however, did 
not live long to enjoy the blessings of that peace which he had 
secured to his subjects. Being seized with a dysentery, at Epinay, 
a royal seat on the Seine, he was conveyed to Saint Denis, where 
he died in the thirty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in the 
church of the abbey he had so richly endowed. He had four 
wives: Gomatrude, whom he repudiated, and Nantilda, Wlfe- 
gonda, and Bertilda. 

The division of his dominions between his two sons, which he 
had made during his life, was rigidly observed ; Sigebert governed 
Austrasia, and Clovis was proclaimed King of France. 



CLOVIS THE SECOND. 



A. D. 638.] Dagobert, on his death-bed, recommended his 
Queen Nantilda and her son Clovis to the care of Aega, mayor of 
the palace ; and the conduct of Aega showed that the confidence of 
his sovereign was not misplaced. 

The first use he made of his power was to restore to indi- 
viduals, in the name of Clovis, what the officers of the exchequer 
had unjustly exacted from them. One year after the death of 
Dagobert, an ambassador appeared at Paris to demand a division 
of his treasures. The request was complied with, and Aega ac- 



CLOVIS THE SECOND. 65 

companied the ambassador to Compeigne, where the gold, silver, 
furniture, clothes and jewels were divided between Clovis and 
Sigebert. The royal family sustained a severe as well as a double 
loss. Pepin, a man of exalted virtues, who had been selected as the 
protector of Sigebert, died about this time ; and Aega did not long 
survive him. The successors of these virtuous ministers neither 
possessed the same fidelity, nor the same moderation. Erchi- 
noalde, the new mayor of Paris and protector of Clovis, governed 
more like a king than a minister. Among his servants was a 
girl of exquisite beauty, named Batilda, whom he married to the 
young monarch. 

She was a woman of exemplary character and heroic courage. 
She was born in England, of a Saxon family, from whom she 
had been carried off when a child and sold as a slave in France. 
The author of her life affirms, that she was descended from 
illustrious parents ; but as Clovis was a king and Batilda a slave, 
the virtue of the latter was insufficient to counterbalance the 
inequality of the parties in the eyes of the nation. Grimoald, 
the son of Pepin, aspired to the enjoyment of his father's post; 
and though powerfully opposed by Otho, the son of an Austrasian 
nobleman, who had been governor to the king, he found means 
to procure the assassination of this rival, and by that means ob- 
tained the object of his wishes. Only one battle is recorded 
in the reign of Sigebert, that of the Sclavonians, in which 
the slaughter was immense; spreading universal consternation 
throughout the Austrasian army. The king's person being in 
danger, it was prudent to enter into a negotiation for peace. 

This is the only memorable event in the reign of Sigebert, who 
was a good, though not an active prince ; more busied in religious 
foundations than in military establishments: a pious monarch, 
but a bad politician ; formed by nature for obedience rather than 
command. He married very young, and had one son by his 
Queen Inmichilda, called Dagobert. The birth of this prince 
increased the devotion of the monarch ; his whole time was 
devoted to works of piety. Grimoald held the reigns of govern- 



56 CLOVIS THE SECOND. 

ment, distributing favors as he pleased, and regulating everything 
according to his wishes. The king's confidence in this ambitious 
minister was so great, that, finding himself attacked by a danger- 
ous disease, he recommended his son to his care. Sigebert died 
at Metz, and was buried in the magnificent church which he had 
recently built in that city, and dedicated to Saint Martin. Dago- 
bert, his son, succeeded to the throne without opposition ; but he 
had no sooner ascended it than he was removed from his station 
by an act of treason the most abominable. 

The conspirators being afraid to make an attempt on his life, 
cut off his hair and sent him to Scotland — where he long lived in 
a state of obscurity — ^under the conduct of Didon, Bishop of 
Poictiers, who, though descended from. Clovis, was not ashamed 
to undertake the infamous commission. A report was immediately 
spread that Dagobert was dead ; and they even affected to bury 
him with great pomp. From a belief that Dagobert was really 
dead, or from ignorance of his retreat, he was not recalled. 

Austrasia submitted to Clovis, who re-united for the fourth time 
the several kingdoms of the monarchy. The reign of Clovis, like 
that of his brother Sigebert, was undistinguished by any brilliant 
achievement. There are few kings of whom more good and more 
evil has been said. 

A great famine happening in France at this time, Clovis, in 
order to procure nourishment for the poor, sold the plates of gold 
and silver which covered the tombs of Saint Denis and his 
companions. 

This was a charitable action, and truly worthy of a Christian 
king ; but, at the same time, it was an encroachment on the trea- 
sures of the monks. Clovis died in the twenty-second year of 
his age and fifteenth of his reign. 

He was buried at Saint Denis. 



13 






CLOTAIRE THE THIRD. 



A. D. 656.] Clovis left three sons, Clotaire, Childeric and 
Thierri ; the eldest of whom was proclaimed sole king, under the 
conduct of Queen Batilda, and of Ebroin, Mayor of Paris, who 
was a man of address and courage, capable of great undertakings, 
but cruel and ambitious. 

He had the art to conceal his vices, to which he was induced 
through the fear of displeasing Batilda, whose wise plans he ever 
seconded with cheerfulness and alacrity. The regency of that 
princess was distinguished by its mildness, prudence, justice 
and virtue. The Gauls, without distinction of age or sex, paid 
a heavy poll-tax, which either prevented them from marrying, 
or subjected them to the necessity of exposing, or even selling 
their children. They now carried their complaints to the foot 
of the throne ; and Batilda, moved by their supplications, re- 
mitted this onerous tribute; and redeemed all those whom the 
rigid exaction of it had reduced to a state of slavery. Nor was 
she less attentive to the interests of the church. She displayed 
her zeal for religion in her endeavors to promote a reformation 
of manners ; in the repression of intrigues for obtaining the honors 
of episcopacy, and in the extermination of simony. 

The Austrasians, however, demanded a king of their own ; 
and the queen, in compliance with their request, appointed her 
second son to reign over them. Wlfoalde was created mayor 
of the palace, and declared guardian to the young prince, whom 
Imnichilda, mother of the banished Dagobert, obtained permission 
to accompany. 

In this condescension, Batilda displayed more goodness than 



58 CLOTAIRE THE THIRD. 

policy; for Imnichilda was beloved, and Dagobert was still 
alive ; so that the residence of that princess, in a kingdom which 
belonged to her son, might be attended with disagreeable conse- 
quences. But the virtuous mind, conscious of its own rec- 
titude, is seldom open to suspicion. Childeric was received, 
and crowned with every possible demonstration of joy, and tran- 
quillity appeared to be established throughout the whole empire. 

The virtuous regent was studiously bent on promoting the 
interests of religion, the welfare of the state, and the education 
of her son. Her court was filled with people renowned for 
their wisdom and piety. But, unfortunately, her partiality to 
bishops proved prejudicial to the church, and injurious to her 
own reputation. She invited to court, among others, two men 
equally celebrated for their mental endowments, though not pos- 
sessed of an equal portion of merit. One of them, the illustrious 
Ligur, who was allied to the royal family, was prudent, pious, 
and learned ; endued with a suavity of manners that captivated 
every heart, and with a strictness of virtue that conciliated uni- 
versal respect. Him the queen appointed to the bishopric of 
Autan, and the sanctity of his life evinced the wisdom of her 
choice. The other was Sigebrand, Bishop of Paris, a prelate 
whose conduct had been hitherto irreproachable, but whose 
vanity proved the cause of his destruction. This haughty favor- 
ite, in order to ensure a greater degree of consequence, suffered 
a wrong construction to be put on Batilda's kindness to him. 

The nobles, jealous of the credit he enjoyed, began to murmur, 
and at last put him to death. 

The assassins then hastened to the queen, and advised her to 
shut herself up in a monastery. 

As she had long sighed after a life of solitude, she was easily 
prevailed on to listen to their advice, and retired to the abbey of 
Chelles, which she had founded. She there passed the remain- 
der of her life in the exercise of every virtue. She was after- 
wards canonized. Batilda's secession from the regency left the 



CLOTAIRE THE THIRD. 59 

kingdom a prey to the unbridled licentiousness of the mayor of 
the palace. 

Ebroin, possessed of sovereign authority, now showed himself 
in his true character — a monster of avarice, cruelty, perfidy and 
pride. His administration was one continued scene of injustice, 
tyranny, outrage and oppression. If a man was rich, powerful, 
or virtuous, he was exposed to become the victim of his avidity, 
ambition, or malice. 

Detested by all men of integrity, he banished the nobles from 
court, and forbade them to appear there, without an express in- 
vitation from him. 

Things were in this dreadful situation, when Clotaire died, in 
the twentieth year of his age, and the fifteenth of his reign. He 
died unmarried, and was buried in the church belonging to the 
abbey of St. Denis. The ambitious Ebroin, hated by all the 
world, could not hope to preserve his place, if the usual forms 
were observed in the election of a mayor of the palace. In- 
fluenced by this consideration, without summoning the nobles 
of the kingdom to deliberate on the matter, he raised Thierri to 
the throne, and had him proclaimed King of Paris and Bur- 
gundy. This exertion of power astonished the nobles, though 
it did not give them any aversion to their new monarch. 

They were even on the road, for the purpose of paying their 
respects and doing homage to him, when they received a re- 
newal of the prohibition to appear at court without permission. 

Enraged at an insult so pointed and gross, they immediately 
assembled, and flew to arms. 

The crown was unanimously transferred to Childeric, who 
hastened to join them at the head of a powerful army. The 
conspiracy was so general, and so sudden, that Ebroin, forsaken 
by everybody, had but just time to escape the fury of the nobles 
by taking refuge in a church. 

His life was spared, but his possessions were confiscated, and 
he was constrained to pass the remainder of his life in the convent 
of Luxeuil. 



CHILDERIC THE SECOND. 



A. D. 670,] The commencement of this reign was devoted 
to acts of gratitude, and to the support of the laws. Childeric 
made a point of rewarding such of the nobles as had contributed 
to his elevation ; and as Ligur, Bishop of Autun, had been greatly- 
instrumental in effecting this revolution, he entrusted him with 
the administration of affairs, and declared him his principal min- 
ister. 

The great credit which this prelate enjoyed with his sove- 
reign has made some writers believe that he was created mayor 
of the palace: but they did not reflect, that an office which gave 
the command of armies, and the power of judging of matters of 
life and death, was incompatible with the character of a priest 
and prelate. 

However that may be, to the prudent councils of this great 
man was the king indebted for the reformation of numerous 
abuses that had crept into the state. But all these flattering 
symptoms of a wise and virtuous reign speedily vanished. 

The nobles, seeing that this reformation would effect a dimi- 
nution of their own enormous power and undue consequence, 
adopted every means they could devise, for corrupting the mind 
of this young sovereign. Having acquired a perfect ascendency 
over him, they led him into every kind of excess ; debauchery 
soon gave way to indolence, and indolence to cruelty. He suf- 
fered all those ordinances which he had so properly renewed, to 
be violated with impunity ; and authorized a contempt of the 
laws by his own example, in contracting an incestuous marriage 
with a near relative. In vain were the solicitations and remon- 



CHILDERIC THE SECOND. 61 

strances of his ministers exerted to induce him to the pursuit of 
a different course of life. His representations, though at first 
they v/ere listened to with some degree of attention, soon be- 
came insupportable; and it was resolved to embrace the first 
opportunity that should occur for effecting his ruin. 

It was customary in ancient times for bishops to invite their 
sovereigns to celebrate the festival of Easter in their cathedrals : 
Ligur requested Childeric to do him that honor, and the king, still 
retaining some degree of respect for him, accepted his invitation, 
and repaired to Autun. He there found Hector, patrician, or 
governor of Marseilles, who had a favor to ask of him. • That 
nobleman, whose merit was equal to his birth, was intimate with 
the minister, and knowing the credit he enjoyed with his sove- 
reign, had frequently conferred with him on the subject of his 
present application. 

It was insinuated, however, to the king, that there was some 
mystery in this interview, and that the two friends had formed 
a design to interrupt the tranquillity of the state. Thus pre- 
judiced against the prelate, instead of going to the cathedral, on 
the night of Easter Sunday, which the early Christians always 
passed in prayer, he repaired to the Church of Saint Sympho- 
rien, where he received the sacrament from the hands of Bishop 
Prejectus. 

The next morning, after a grand repast, he went almost intoxi- 
cated to the cathedral, swearing and blaspheming, and threatening 
Ligur in the most indecent manner. From thence he repaired 
to the episcopal palace, where the bishop joined him as soon as 
he had said mass. 

Childeric loaded him with reproaches and insults ; and Ligur, 
finding from his conduct that his ruin was inevitable if he re- 
mained any longer at Autun, left the city with his friend Hector : 
but they were very speedily pursued. Hector, after a vigorous 
defence, was killed, and Ligur was brought back to the king, 
who sent him into confinement at the monastery of Luxeuil. 



63 



CHILDERIC THE SECOND. 



There the prelate met with Ebroin, the deposed mayor of the 
palace, who earnestly besought his friendship. 

Childeric, being now deprived of the advice of his minister, 
fell into the extremes of vice, and finally became an object of 
universal contempt. 

A nobleman, named Bodillon, venturing to represent to him 
the danger that would arise from an oppressive impost that he 
was on the point of establishing, the king ordered him to be tied 
to a post, and had him severely flogged. 

The nobles, enraged at such an insult to a man of rank, con- 
spired against his life. Childeric was then with his family at a 
seat in the forest of Livri, near Chelles. Thither the conspira- 
tors repaired ; and, forcing his palace, massacred him, with his 
queen, and their son, Dagobert, an infant. 

Another son, named Daniel, had the good fortune to escape, 
and afterwards reigned under the title of Chilperic the Third. 
Childeric was in the twenty-third year of his age. This prince 
was destitute both of courage and conduct. He neither pos- 
sessed sufficient knowledge to govern a great kingdom, nor suffi- 
cient discernment to appreciate and pursue the wise councils of 
a prudent and virtuous minister. He was interred at the abbey 
of Saint Germain des Pres. 



THIERKI THE FIHST. 



A. D. 673.] Ligiir, who, as well as Ebroin, had left the 
convent of Luxeuil on the death of Childeric, was received at 
the court of Thierri as a tutelary deity. His first care was to 
procure the election of a mayor of the palace ; and the choice 
fell upon Leudesie. The news of this election disconcerted 
Ebroin, who retired into Austrasia, Avhere his friends were 
numerous. 

Wlfoalde, who governed the kingdom under Dagobert, sup- 
plied him with troops, with which the presumptuous rebel ad- 
vanced towards Paris. 

The alarm was so sudden and unexpected, that every one had 
recourse to flight. Thierri, the mayor of the palace, and all the 
noblemen of their retinue, fled, first to Baisieu, between Amiens 
and Corbie, and then to Cressy. 

The royal treasury was plundered, the churches pillaged, and 
the whole country laid waste. 

The conqueror, however, despairing of succeeding by force, 
had recourse to stratagem ; and, inviting Leudesie to a confer- 
ence, which that credulous nobleman accepted, he there put him 
to death. This murderous deed only served to render Thierri's 
hatred of Ebroin more inveterate, and to show that monarch the 
danger of entrusting such a man with any considerable degree of 
authority. Ebroin, sensible the conjuncture Avas not favorable 
to his designs, again retired into Austrasia, but with the determi- 
nation to put his plans in execution wherever an opportunity 
should occur. He had the audacity to produce a pretended son 
of Clotaire the Third. In this infamous project, he was assisted 



64 THIERRI THE FIRST. 

by two prelates ; who had been deprived of their episcopal dig- 
nity on account of their crimes : these were Didier, Bishop of 
Chalons, and Bobon, Bishop of Valentia. All the provinces 
that refused to acknowlege this phantom of a monarch, were ex- 
posed to the most cruel and destructive depredations. 

Ligur was the first who felt the effects of Ebroin's resentment. 
Vaymer, Duke of Champagne, was sent to besiege him in Autun, 
and the place was on the point of being carried by assault, when 
the good prelate, having distributed his effects among the poor, 
surrendered himself to the enemy, that the inhabitants might not 
be exposed to the fury of a military mob. Didier was so inhuman 
as to order his eyes to be put out. The king, having lost his best 
friend, and most prudent adviser, found himself reduced to the 
necessity of treating with his rebellious subject. Ebroin was 
declared mayor of the palace, and the pretended son of Clotaire 
sunk into his original nothingness. 

The new minister at first published a general amnesty ; but 
soon after affecting a profound respect for majesty, he ordered a 
strict inquiry to be made into the conspiracy and murder of 
Childeric. The crime was certainly deserving of the severest 
punishment; and had Ebroin been really actuated by motives 
of justice, his conduct on this occasion would have merited the 
highest commendation. But the inquisition which he established 
was solely for the purpose of sacrificing such of the nobles as 
had hitherto escaped his resentment. Count Guerin, Ligur's 
brother, though a nobleman of unimpeached fidelity to his sove- 
reign, was stoned to death; and the virtuous prelate himself, after 
being inhumanly tortured, was sent in disgrace to the monastery 
at Feschamp. About this time Dagobert, King of Austrasia, was 
assassinated in an insurrection of his subjects. The death of 
Dagobert ought to have reunited the whole monarchy under the 
authority of Thierri; but the aversion of the Austrasians to the 
government of Ebroin deterred them from acknowledging that 
monarch. Pepin being declared Duke, or Governor of Austrasia, 
took up arms, but was defeated by Ebroin on the frontiers of 



THIERRT THE FIRST. 65 

Neustria, and returned into Austrasia, where he exerted all his 
powers for the purpose of undermining the government of Thierri. 
Ebroin did not long enjoy the fruits of this victory. A nobleman, 
named Emanfroy, attacked him as he came from church, clove 
his head asunder with a broadsword, and delivered his country 
from a monster who merited universal execration. The mayors 
who succeeded him made war on Pepin at different times without 
success ; and Bertaire, the last of them, a man wholly destitute of 
every good quality, was doomed to be at once the witness and the 
victim of his elevation. A great number of noblemen, who were 
discontented with the government of Thierri, had retired into the 
kingdom of Austrasia, where Pepin, as well from policy as gene- 
rosity, supported them. He even sent deputies to the king to beg 
he would pardon these unfortunate men, whom a violent spirit of 
persecution had compelled to quit their country. The monarch 
proudly answered, that he would save him the trouble of sending 
them back, by going to fetch them in person, at the head of a 
powerful army. Preparations for war were immediately made, 
and the two armies met at Testris, a village situated on the small 
river Daumignon, between Saint Quintin and Peronne. 

The battle was fought with great obstinacy ; but victory at last 
declared in favor of the Austrasians. 

The king, obliged to fly, retired with precipitation to the capital 
of his empire. Bertaire also had the good fortune to escape from 
the enemy, but was assassinated by his own soldiers. The con- 
queror took possession of the royal treasury, forced the gates of 
Paris, seized the person of Thierri, and causing himself to be 
declared mayor of the palace, reduced the whole kingdom under 
his domination. 

Pepin, when he had secured this enormous extent of power, 
conducted himself with so much prudence, moderation and pro- 
priety, that he attracted the attention of foreign powers, many of 
whom honored him with particular marks of esteem ; enforced 
respect from the nations dependent on France, and excited the 
5 



66 THIERRI THE FIRST. 

benediction of his countrymen, by the destruction of tyranny and 
oppression. 

He re-estabhshed the bishops, who had been deposed, in their 
sees and possessions ; he restored to the nobles their dignities and 
estates ; to the orphan and widow their lawful rights, and to the 
laws their primitive vigor. While Duke of Austrasia, he had 
subdued the Bavarians, the Saxons and the Suevi ; and he now 
proposed, at an assembly of the nobles, to march without delay 
against the rest of the German rebels. This proposal was ac- 
cepted with joy; but before he set out on this expedition, he left 
a man of the name of Norbert, in whom he could confide, to 
watch the motions of Thierri. Victory followed his steps. Rad- 
bode, Duke of the Frisans, having offered him battle, was attacked 
and defeated. Pepin took from him a part of his dominions and 
made him pay tribute for the rest. On his return to Paris, he as- 
sembled a council, in which some excellent regulations were adopt- 
ed for the reformation of manners, the assistance of the poor, and 
the protection of the widow and orphan. By this artful system 
of policy, and by a thousand actions of piety, justice and valor, 
he conciliated the affections of the people, and attempted to over- 
come their settled aversion to acknowledge any other masters than 
the descendants of their ancient monarchs. Such was the state 
of France when Thierri died, in the thirty -ninth year of his age. 

By his wife Clotilda, he had two sons, Clovis and Childebert. 
Without entering into the character of this prince, of which we 
know so little, since all the writers of that age were devoted to 
the family of Pepin, we may observe, that he was continually the 
sport of fortune, and a victim to the ambition of his nobles. Ex- 
cluded from the succession in his infancy, and dethroned by an 
ambitious brother, he only recovered his rights to become the 
slave of those whom he was born to command. The battle of 
Testris finally decided the fate of his empire, and left him but 
the shadow of royalty. 



CLOVIS THE THIRD. 



A. D. 691.] Clovis, the eldest of Thierri's children, was pro- 
claimed king of France. Austrasia acknowledged no other au- 
thority than Pepin, who continued to reign under the name of the 
new monarch. 

No event of importance is recorded during the reign of Clovis, 
which was short, only four years. 

At this period regular troops were unknown. Each province had 
its militia; and that was generally commanded to march which 
was nearest the scene of action. All who held benefices of the 
prince or church, all who possessed lands, all the French in short, 
were obliged to serve the king in person. 

Even the bishops were not exempted from personal service. 
In the different provinces, and particularly on the frontiers, there 
were magazines established for providing the troop with subsist- 
ence. It does not appear that the soldiers had any pay; their 
sole reward consisted in the booty they made, which it was cus- 
tomary to collect into one common mass, and then to divide it 
equally. The prisoners were condemned to slavery; and the 
hostages experienced the same fate when those who gave them 
failed to perform their engagements. The French armies, during 
the reign of the Merovingian princes, where wholly composed of 
infantry. If there were some few horsemen, it was only for the 
purpose of escorting the commander-in-chief, and carrying his 
orders. During the same period, too, the only banner used by the 
French troops was the cope of Saint Martin ; it was a kind of 
veil made of silk, and bearing the image of the saint, from whose 
tomb it was brought with great pomp, whenever it was wanted. 



63 CHILDEBERT THE SECOND, 

It was kept under a tent, and just before the battle began was car- 
ried round the camp in triumph. The early kings had such con- 
fidence in the protection of their saint, that, with this standard, 
they thought themselves sure of victory. 

Clovis died in the fifteenth year of his age, and was buried at 
Choisy, upon the Aisne near Compeigne. 



CHILDEBERT THE SECOND. 



A. D. 695.] Childebert succeeded to the dominions of his 
brother, and he became equally a captive with that monarch. 
He was but in his eleventh year when he ascended the throne ; 
and his minority gave Pepin a fresh opportunity of acquiring a 
considerable augmentation of authority. His court was attended 
by all the chief officers — the count of the palace, the grand re- 
ferendary, and the attendant of the royal mansions. He only 
placed about the person of the youthful sovereign a few faithful 
servants of his own, who were less studious to serve him than 
to watch his motions. The ambitious regent had two sons, 
Drogan and Grimoald, the first of whom he created Duke of 
Burgundy, and the second he appointed mayor of the palace. 
The eldest son dying soon after, the youngest succeeded to his 
principality, as it is called by the author of the annals of Metz ; 
whence it appears that this duchy was a kind of sovereignty. 

Pepin did not suffer his whole time to be occupied by pro- 
jects of ambition ; he devoted a part of it to the softer pursuits of 
love. 

Some writers pretend that he repudiated Plectrude in order 




18 




19 




20 




]\:/../Jri,i-^/>\ 



CHILDEBERT THE SECOND. 69 

to marry Alpaida, by whom he had a son, afterwards so well 
known by the name of Charles Mart el. But there are several 
acts still extant, which prove that the former was never separated 
from her husband, so that the second only enjoyed the title of 
mistress ; or else the Austrasian duke, like many of the first 
kings of France, had two wives at the same time. This offence 
against the sacredness of the marriage rites excited the zeal of 
Lambert, Bishop of Liege, who openly inveighed against it as 
a public instance of adultery that merited the severest reproba- 
tion. — The prelate was assassinated by Odo, brother of Alpaida. 
Some military expeditions took place during this reign. War 
was declared against Egica, King of the Visigoths ; but no ac- 
counts of its progress or termination have been preserved. Rad- 
bode, Duke of the Frisans, revolted a second time, and was 
again defeated, and reduced to subjection. The Germans, or 
AUemani, in union with the Suevi, shook off the French yoke ; 
and Pepin, marching against them, defeated Williare, their duke ; 
but yet he could not subdue the spirit of that nobleman, who, 
in a short time, again took up arms, and experienced a similar 
check. 

Still his courage was unabated, and it was found necessary to 
send a third army against him, which was on the point of en- 
tering on the German territories, when the death of Childebert 
superinduced its recall. This prince died in the twenty-ninth 
year of his age, and the sixteenth of his reign. He was buried, 
with his brother, at Choisy, upon the Aisne. 

Childebert left one son who succeeded him under the appella- 
tion of Dagobert the Third. But few monarchs have paid a 
greater attention to the precepts of Christianity than Childebert. 
His strict observance of justice, and his efforts to enforce a due 
administration of it, throughout his dominions, procured him the 
surname of the Jtist. 



DAGOBEET THE SECOND. 



A. D. 711.] Dagobert, on ascending the throne, was destined 
to experience the fate of his predecessor. 

He was shown to the people, received their homage, and their 
presents, and was shut up in a country seat, to lead a life of 
indolence, unworthy his birth and station. He was not more 
than twelve years of age; so that Pepin continued to enjoy his 
usual extent of authority. 

Some time after this, Pepin became dangerously ill at Jupil, 
one of his country houses, on the banks of the Maese, opposite 
his castle of Heristal. 

Grimoald immediately left the capital, in order to visit him, 
and as he passed through Liege, he entered the Church of Saint 
Lambert, where he was assassinated by a man named Rangaire. 
He left an infant son, Theodald, whom Pepin appointed mayor 
of the palace of Dagobert. Such an appointment was a gross 
encroachment on the privileges of the nobles, who had always 
enjoyed the right of choosing the mayor ; it was also an injury to 
the state, by giving it a child for governor ; and an insult on the 
king, by placing him under the guardianship of an infant. But 
as the duke's authority was absolute, no one dared to murmur. 
Pepin, after having reigned with despotic authority for twenty- 
seven years and a half, expired at Jupil ; leaving two sons, 
Charles Martel, to whom he bequeathed the office of mayor ; 
and Childebrand, from whom, historians assert, the third race of 
monarchs descended ; two other sons, Drogan and Grimoald, 
having died before him. Theodald had succeeded his father 
Grimoald, in the office of mayor of the palace of Neustria and 



DAGOBERT THE SECOND. 71 

Burgundy, and discharged the duties of his office under the guar- 
dianship of his grandmother Plectrude. 

This ambitious woman, in order to regain all the power which 
her husband Pepin had possessed, caused Charles Martel to be 
arrested, and put in confinement at Cologne, where she resided. 

But the Austrasian nobles, soon becoming disgusted with a 
female government, applied to Dagobert, who was then in his 
eighteenth year, and excited him to war. The young prince, 
roused by their representations, took the management of affairs 
upon himself, and marched against the Austrasians, met them in 
the forest of Guise, and obtained a decisive victory ; Plectrude 
and her grandsons escaped only with their lives. Dagobert 
gave the important post of mayor of the palace to Rainfroy, one 
of the bravest and most powerful noblemen at the court of Paris. 
He carried the war into the heart of Austrasia, and according to 
the ferocious ideas of those times, he signalized his valor by the 
extent and cruelty of his depredations. Tt was during these 
troubles that Charles Martel escaped from prison. 

The Austrasians received him with every demonstration of 
joy; and as he possessed all the brilliant qualities of his father 
Pepin, they looked on him with a kind of adoration, and with an 
unanimous voice, chose him their duke. Such was the state of 
affairs, when Dagobert died, in the fourth year of his reign. He 
was interred at the monastery of Choisy, upon the Aisne. This 
monarch left one son, Thierri, but Rainfroy thinking the prince 
too young to hold the reins, of government, sent him to the mo- 
nastery at Nantes, under the care of the sacred fathers ; and placed 
on the throne Clotaire the Fourth, who descended from the Mero- 
vingians, but had passed the previous years of his life in monastic 
seclusion. 



CLOTAIRE THE FOURTH. 



A. D. 715.] This prince was raised to the throne of Aus- 
trasia but a few months before Charles Martel escaped from his 
prison, where he had been incarcerated by order of Plectrude. 
As soon as that event took place, Charles collected his army 
together, and marched against the Neustrians, whom he com- 
pletely subdued, despoiled Rainfroy of the mayoralty of Paris, 
and raised Clotaire, King of Austrasia, to the throne of France. 
On his arrival at the capital, that prince was unanimously pro- 
claimed king of the whole monarchy, and Charles Martel mayor 
of the palace of the two kingdoms. Charles next allied himself 
to Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, and commenced the war against 
the Saxons, who had ravaged the frontier of the Rhine ; he opened 
Germany to the missionaries who prepared the conquests of 
Charlemagne. 

This reign, however, was very short, and little of interest re- 
specting it can be learned from historians of those days ; they all, 
however, agree, that from continued ill health, Clotaire passed 
most of his time in seclusion, and died in Paris, having reigned 
but seventeen months. 



CHILPERIC THE SECOND. 



A. D. 716.] This monarch was in the forty-sixth year of his 
age, when he ascended the throne. Scorning the spiritless in- 
dolence of his predecessor, his reign was distinguished by activity 
and vigor. 

Accompanied by Rainfroy, he marched into Austrasia, to op- 
pose the haughty pretensions of Charles Martel, who had re- 
signed his post as mayor of Paris, and had resumed the dukedom 
of Austrasia. Radbode, Duke of the Frisans, who was in alli- 
ance with him, had passed the Rhine, and advanced to the very 
gates of Cologne. Charles attacked him before he could be 
joined by the royal army ; but though that nobleman displayed 
the most intrepid courage, he w^as overpowered by numbers and 
obliged to retire. This victory increased the reputation of 
Charles, and revived the hopes of his party. The Austrasians 
flocked to his standard in crowds, and he soon found himself 
enabled to carry the war into the enemy's country. As soon as 
the season would permit, he opened the campaign ; and, passing 
the Carbonerian forest, pushed his destructive march as far as 
Cambray, where he was met by Chilperic. A battle ensued at 
the village of Vinchy, in which Charles obtained a complete 
victory, and pursued the king to the gates of Paris. Finding 
that capital prepared for a vigorous resistance, he suddenly 
changed his course, and marched to Cologne, which opened its 
gates to him. 

Plectrude was obliged to give up the treasures of Pepin, and 
to surrender her grandsons, Theodald, Hugh, and Arnold, whom 
the conqueror secured. 



74 CHILPERIC THE SECOND. 

By this means Charles became master of all that part of the 
French emph*e. 

Chilperic having reinforced, prepared a second time to march 
against the Austrasians, in full hopes of success. But the valor 
and intrepidity of Charles produced among the troops of the king 
such consternation that they refused to face the enemy. 

Charles having completely established internal tranquillity, 
made a successful expedition against the Saxons, a people who 
strictly preserved their attachment to the Christian religion and 
to the French monarchy. Chilperic died very suddenly at Noyon, 
v^rhere he vi^as buried. 

This prince did not complete the fifth year of his reign : 
though he was unfortunate in most of his undertakings, his merit 
was conspicuous. His wisdom, goodness, courage, activity, and 
prudence, have procured him an honorable exemption from the 
list of Faineans, or indolent princes ; an epithet which has 
justly been bestowed on the latter monarchs of the Merovingian 
race. 

As he had no children, Thierri, the second son of Dagobert 
the Second, surnamed of Chelles, ascended the throne. 





o V 





U:/..ryr,y,../,y..sr: 



THIERRI THE SECOND. 



A. D. 720.] Thierri was in his fifth year when he was 
proclaimed King of Paris, Burgundy and Austrasia. 

That is the title by which he is distinguished in two of his 
charters, still extant, both of which were drawn up in the first year 
of his reign. 

Charles Martel still continued to reign as regent of this infant 
prince. The remainder of that nobleman's life was one con- 
tinued succession of wars, battles, victories and triumphs. 

He had no sooner subdued the Saxons, and recovered posses- 
sion of all that country as far as Weser, than his attention was 
called to the Germans, who had revolted. Having reduced them 
to submission, he waged war against the Bavarians, whom he also 
subdued. 

The Duke of Aquitaine, who took up arms about the same 
time, was overcome by Charles in two general actions, and com- 
pelled to sue for mercy. But he had now a more formidable 
army to encounter, as the Saracens had entered France with a 
powerful army. 

A decisive victory was fought, which lasted nearly two days, 
between the Saracens and the united forces of Austrasia, Bur- 
gundy, and Neustria, at the close of which the superiority of 
courage and conduct over numbers was evidently manifested. 

On that memorable occasion, the weighty strokes of Charles 
first acquired him the name of Martel, the hammer. Most of 
their principal officers were killed, and the bloody field was 
strewed, if the historians of those times may be credited, with 
the bodies of three hundred and seventy-five thousand Mahomet- 



76 THIERRI THE SECOND. 

ans. The camp of the Saracens, filled with the spoils of con- 
quered provinces, was pillaged, and the plunder divided among 
the troops. It is said that Charles, after this victory, instituted 
the celebrated order of the Genet, which consisted but of sixteen 
knights, who wore a gold collar, with three chains, to which was 
suspended a Genet of solid gold. Favinus and the Abbe Jus- 
tiniani assure us, that this order was much in vogue under the 
second race of kings ; it does not, however, appear that military- 
orders were in use before the twelfth century ; which occasioned 
Father Menestrier to fix this institution of the Genet at the reign 
of Charles the Seventh. A second irruption of the Mussulmans 
into Provence revived the laurels of Charles, who, in another 
decisive battle, again subdued the Frisans, and slew their duke 
with his own hands. 

On the death of Eude, Charles granted the dukedom to his son, 
reserving to himself and his heirs the claim of homage, without 
even mentioning the name of his sovereign. 

Soon after this Thierri died, in the twenty-second year of his age, 
a mere protege of Charles Martel. He was buried at St. Denis. 



INTERREGNUM. 



The interregnum which ensued aftter the death of Thierri, 
according to the historian M. de Valois, lasted five years, Charles 
thought that the services he had rendered to the kingdom ought 
to have secured to him an offer of the crown. Possessed of 
sovereign authority, he might, without impediment, have placed it 
on his head ; but knowing that the French were firmly attached 
to the royal family, he did not dare to assume a title which would 
have excited such general envy ; and the nobles were anxious 
that he should choose them a king from the descendants of 
Clovis. 

Still he continued to exert an absolute sway, under the title of 
Duke of the French. 

Pope Gregory the Second styles him Duke and Mayor of the 
Palace of France. 

Charles, more debilitated by fatigue than by age, had been for 
some time afflicted with a disorder that insensibly prayed upon his 
constitution ; he therefore began to think of settling his family 
concerns. By his wife, Rotrude, he had three children, Carloman, 
Pepin, and the Princess Hildetrude. By Somnichilde, his second 
wife, he had another son named Grifon. Having convened an 
assembly of the nobles at Verberie, a country seat near Com- 
peigne, he obtained their consent to make the following division 
of the French empire : — to Carloman he gave Austrasia, Germany 
and Thuringia; to Pepin, Neustria, Burgundy and Provence: 
but a very small portion of territory was assigned to Grifon. 
This division gave rise to some commotions in Burgundy ; but 
they were soon appeased by Pepin. 



78 INTERREGNUM. 

Soon after he had made these arrangements, Charles died at 
Quersi upon Oise, in the fifty-first year of his age ; and was 
interred with great pomp at the abbey of Saint Denis. 

Although his victories over the Saracens most probably pre- 
served Europe from the impending yoke of Mahomet, yet has his 
character been impeached by the legends of the monks ; and the 
clergy who resented the freedom with v/hich he applied the 
revenues of the church to the defence of the Christian religion, 
have not scrupled to enroll him among the damned. The death 
of Charles occasioned great confusion. Hunalde, Duke of 
Aquitaine, in violation of his oaths, refused to acknowledge the 
authority of Carloman and Pepin. The two princes marched 
against him, laid his country waste, subdued him, and exacted 
from him a renewal of his homage. 

During this expedition, they fixed the boundaries of their re- 
spective dominions ; and Carloman, then parsing the Rhine, ad- 
vanced to the banks of the Danube, and constrained the Germans 
to sue for peace. 

About this time, Charles, the eldest son of Pepin, who after- 
wards acquired the name of Charlemagne, from the splendor of 
his actions, was born at the castle of Ingelheim, near Mayence. 
But the French were by no means satisfied with the long con- 
tinuance of this interregnum ; and those princes who paid tribute 
to the crown, though willing to acknowledge the authority of a 
monarch, refused to pay obedience to men who, they said, had 
annihilated royalty, and now oppressed the nobles. — Influenced 
by these considerations, Pepin restored the regal title in Childeric 
the Third. 



CHILDEEIC THE THIRD. 



A.D. 742.] Childeric, according to an ancient genealogical 
table of the kings of France, was son of Thierri the Second. 
He only reigned over Nenstria, Burgundy and Provence, Carlo- 
man and Pepin reserving to themselves the remainder of the 
kingdom. The tributary princes still obeying with regret the 
children of Charles Martel, entered a fresh league, in order to 
shake off the authority of Pepin and Oarloman. 

In this they were successively repulsed, but Carloman, foresee- 
ing difficulty and trouble, determined to embrace a life of religious 
solitude. Even in the moment of triumph, he conceived the de- 
sign of secluding himself from the follies and vices of the world, 
in the silent gloom of a cloister. He accordingly repaired to 
Rome, where he received the monastic habit from the hands of 
Pope Zachary, who assigned him a place in the Benedictine abbey 
on Mount Cassin. 

Pepin now entertained serious thoughts of uniting in himself 
the authority and title of king. The chief obstacle to his eleva- 
tion arose from the oath of fidelity which the French had taken 
to Childeric. This impediment Pepin undertook to remove, 
though the means which he adopted for this purpose are variously 
related. 

The generality of writers pretend that, being assured of the 
favor, esteem and suffrages of the nation, he proposed to them 
to consult Pope Zachary; who replied, that being already in 
possession of the regal authority, he might certainly assume the 
title of king. The people were accordingly persuaded that this 
declaration was sufncient to release them from the obligation of 



80 CHILDERIC THE THIRD. 

their oath. There are others, on the contrary, who affirm that 
Childeric, impressed with an earnest desire of embracing a reli- 
gious life, voluntarily, and with the consent of his principal 
vassals, abdicated the throne; by which means, the right of 
electing a new sovereign reverted to the people, who unanimously 
conferred that dignity on Pepin. Accordingly he was proclaimed 

king. 

Childeric descended from the throne, and retired to the monas- 
tery of Sithieu. He did not survive his deposition more than 
four years. Thus finished the Merovingian race, which had 
reigned three hundred and thirty-three years from Pharamond. 
It gave thirty-six monarchs, twenty-two of whom reigned over 
Paris. The four first were Pagans, the others Christians, but 
rather in name than in manners. Writers of that age, in order to 
justify the usurpation of Pepin, have ascribed to the Merovingians 
all the calamities of the empire ; while they have imputed to the 
Carlovingians every national improvement, and all the good that 
was done during their government of the kingdom under the title 
of Mayors of the Palace. 



THE CARLOVINGIAN EACE. 



PEPIN. 



A. D. 752.] The deplorable end of the Merovmgian race af- 
fords one of those examples (which are not less common than 
dreadful) of the instability of all human affairs. The antiquity 
of its origin, traced to the very earliest times ; the splendor of 
its exploits ; the number of its victories ; the extent of its con- 
quests; the habitual respect of the nation, and the natural at- 
tachment of the French to their lawful sovereigns, all proved 
insufficient to insure its duration. Pepin was crowned at Sois- 
sons, in a general assembly of the nation, and received the 
sacred unction from the hands of Boniface, Archbishop of May- 
ence, and the Pope's legate, by which means he led the people 
to regard his election as an order from heaven, and acquired ad- 
ditional veneration to his person and respect to his power. This 
ceremony, hitherto unknown in France, was performed in the 
cathedral of Soissons, and it was found to be productive of so 
many advantages, that all the successors of Pepin followed his 
example, except Louis the debonnaire, who, being ordered by 
his father, Charlemagne, to go and take the crown from the great 
altar, in the Church of Aix-la-Chapelle, put it on his head, and 
without any farther consecration, was acknowledged king of the 
whole monarchy. The commencement of this new reign was 
distinguished by a signal defeat of the Saxons, who had again 
6 



82 PEPIN. 

revolted, and were again reduced to submission, and compelled 
to pay an annual tribute of three hundred horses. 

Pepin's next care, after his consecration, was to assemble a par- 
liament at Crecy upon Oise, in order to declare war against the 
Lombards. 

But he was extremely surprised to see his brother Carloman 
attend the assembly, who, after having abdicated the throne, had 
assumed the monastic habit. The King of Lombardy, who was 
afraid that the pontiff would prevail on the French monarch to 
espouse his cause, had persuaded this prince to counteract his 
projects. The pious monk accordingly obeyed the orders of his 
sovereign in opposing the interests of the Pope. A recollection 
of his former dignity, his birth, and his virtues, gave a great 
weight to his arguments. He spoke in favor of Astolphos, King 
of the Lombards, with such strength and eloquence, that it was 
determined to send ambassadors to that monarch, to engage him 
to the adoption of pacific measures, before the nation should 
arm. This proof of the influence which Carloman still pos- 
sessed, gave umbrage to Pepin ; who, having conferred on the 
subject with Stephen, the sovereign pontiff, sent him into close 
confinement at a monastery at Vienne, where he died that same 
year. The subsequent seizure of his children, who were also 
immured in a convent, gave birth to strange suspicions on his 
sudden death ; and it was generally supposed that he had fallen 
a sacrifice to the fears and ambition of his brother. Astolphos 
received the French ambassadors with proper respect, and offered 
to forego his pretensions to Rome, but he refused to restore either 
the Exarchate, or the Pentapolis, which the Pope claimed as the 
spoils of a heretic. 

Pepin, not content with this proposal, sent a second embassy, 
which did not prove more successful than the first. He then 
made, with the consent of the nobles, that celebrated donation to 
the church of Saint Peter which gave rise to the temporal power 
of the court of Rome. 

It comprised, under the name of Exarchate— Ravenna, Adria, 



PEPIN. 83 

Ferrara, Imola, Faenza, Forli, and six other towns, with their 
dependencies ; and under that of the Pentapolis— Rimini, Pefaro, 
Fano, Senigaglia, and Ancona, with several places of inferior 
note. Pepin's generosity in thus disposing of territories which 
did not belong to him, is truly curious : he resolved, however, to 
acquire by conquest, a right of disposal ; and for this purpose he 
marched into Italy. 

Astolphos, besieged in Pavia by the French army, renounced 
all pretensions to the sovereignty of Rome, and restored seve- 
ral other towns to the Exarchate and the Pentapolis. The King 
of the French, exulting in the success of his expedition, repassed 
the Alps in triumph. The satisfaction of Pepin was but of short 
duration ; the retreat of the French dissipated the fears of Astol- 
phos ; he rejected the conditions which had been extorted from 
him, and already pressed with menaces and arms the independ- 
ence of Rome. On the receipt of this intelligence, the brave 
Pepin again resumed his armor ; and the rapidity of his march 
was only to be equaled by that of his success. The Lombard 
was a second time compelled to sue for peace ; and to the former 
terms was added the stipulation of an annual tribute of twelve 
thousand sols of gold. 

Pepin had now attained to the summit of glory : the crown of 
Lombardy had, on the death of Astolphos, been conferred on 
Didier ; the Pope was indebted to him for a considerable extent 
of territory ; and the emperor courted his favor, and spared no 
pains to secure his friendship. The repose of France was 
again disturbed by a general revolt of the impatient Saxons ; but 
their endeavors to break only served to rivet their chains ; they 
were speedily subdued, and reduced to unconditional submission. 
This victorious monarch was everywhere successful ; but a slow 
fever threatened his dissolution, and in the fifty-fourth year of 
his age, and sixteenth of his reign, he expired at Saint Denis, 
where he was buried according to his own order, at the church 
door, with his face downwards, and in the posture of a penitent. 

By his wife Bertha, daughter of Caribert, Count of Leon, he 
had four sons — Charlemagne, who succeeded to the kingdom of 



84 PEPIN. 

France ; Carloman, who governed Austrasia ; Pepin, who died 
young, and Gilles, a monk, in the monastery of Saint Sylvestre. 
Pepin possessed great martial abilities, and great political talents ; 
hence his skill and success were equal in the cabinet and the field. 
Under his auspices, France attained that strength and consequence 
which enabled his son to pursue his triumphant career of great- 
ness. 

But amidst the splendor of his virtues, his vices and defects have 

been totally forgotten. 

Not one of his biographers has, in the delineation of his cha- 
racter, noticed the assassination of Theodald ; the despotic 
authority which he exerted over his lawful sovereign ; the viola- 
tion of his oath in deposing Childeric, and taking possession of 
the throne ; or the tyrannical confinement of his brother Carloman 
in a convent. These are weighty defects ; and though opposed 
by many great and glorious actions, are surely sufficient not only 
to preclude indiscriminate commendation but to command a con- 
siderable degree of censure. 

Pepin acquired the surname of Short from his diminutive form, 
which became a subject of pleasantry to some of his courtiers. 
The king being informed of their remarks, determined to convince 
them of their error: with this view he caused a combat to be 
exhibited, at the abbey of Terrieres, between a lion and a bull. 
The former having thrown down his adversary, Pepin -turned to 
the noblemen, who were present, and asked, which of them had 
courage enough to separate or kill the furious combatants. The bare 
proposal made them all shudder — not a soul replied. — "I will do 
it then myself," said the monarch calmly. — He accordingly drew 
his sabre, leaped into the arena, attacked and killed the lion, and 
then turning to the bull, aimed so severe a blow at his head, that 
he separated it from his body. The whole court were astonished 
at this prodigious exertion of courage and strength. The nobles, 
who had indulged their wit at the expense of the king, were con- 
founded. 

Pepin, turning towards them, exclaimed in a lofty tone — " David 
was small, but he overthrew the proud giant who had dared to 



CHARLEMAGNE. 85 

treat him with contempt." This ferocious kind of amusement 
was common in these times. The kings not only exhibited com- 
bats of wild beasts to the people, but they frequently indulged 
themselves with this favorite diversion within the precincts of the 
palace. 



CHARLEMAGNE. 



A. D. 768.] The French nobles, being dissatisfied with the 
division of the realm by the will of Pepin, proceeded to call an 
assembly, in order to form a new and more appropriate division 
between the two brothers, Charlemagne and Carloman. 

Accordingly they gave to Charles, Paris, Burgundy and Aqui- 
taine, and to Carloman, Austrasia with all French Germany. 
The two brothers were crowned the same day ; the eldest at 
Noyon, and the youngest at Soissons. But the harmony that 
subsisted between them was speedily interrupted by the dictates 
of ambition. The first year of their reign a rupture took place, 
and Charles obtained possession of part of Austrasia. Carloman 
was preparing to resent this injury, and the flames of war were on 
the point of desolating the empire, when their attention was attracted 
by another object of their mutual enmity. This was Hunalde, the 
old Duke of Aquitaine, who, suddenly bursting from the fetters of a 
monastic life, which he had patiently borne for more than twenty 
years, assumed the garb of royalty, and was received by his sub- 
jects with the most unequivocal demonstrations of joy. The most 
important cities opened their gates to their long-lost sovereign ; 
and a conquest, the laborious achievements of several years, was 



86 CHARLEMAGNE. 

threatened to be overturned in a few weeks. Charles was sensi- 
ble hoM^ much his own reputation was concerned to oppose the 
torrent: his entreaties persuaded the reluctant Carloman to take 
the field ; but the forces of the royal confederates had scarcely 
formed a junction before the fickle prince Avithdrew, with the 
troops immediately attached to his standard, and left his brother 
to support alone the weight of the war. The commanding genius 
of Charles supplied the deficiency of his numbers ; the Duke of 
Aquitaine, defeated in a decisive battle, escaped with difficulty to 
the Gascon territories, whence he was surrendered to the enemy ; 
and the captive Hunalde confined in a prison. The brilliant suc- 
cess of Charles induced Didier, King of the Lombards, and Tas- 
silon, Duke of Bavaria, who had planned hostilities against him, 
to forego their designs. In the midst of these transactions, Car- 
loman died at Samancy, near Laon, and was interred at the 
Abbey of Saint Remi, at Rheims. He left two sons, Pepin and 
Siagre ; but neither of them was permitted to succeed him ; the 
Austrasians, impressed with respect for the talents of Charles, 
acknowledged him for their sovereign. Gerberga, the widow of 
Carloman, trembling for the fate of her children, fled with them 
into Lombardy, where they were received with great afifection. 
The court of Lombardy soon became an asylum for all the ene- 
mies of the French monarchy; Hunalde having escaped from 
prison, repaired thither; and several of the Austrasian nobles, 
disgusted with the government of Charles, took refuge with the 
enemy. Charles was not ignorant of these proceedings; but his 
immediate attention was called to another quarter. A revolt of 
the Saxons engaged him in a war, which with some short inter- 
vals, exercised his persevering valor during thirty-three years. 
From the Rhine, and beyond the Elbe, the martial inhabitants of 
the north of Germany were still inimical to the government and 
religion of the French. They rejected with contempt the servile 
obligation of tribute ; and, in successive engagements, displayed a 
ferocious courage, which could only be repulsed by the veteran 
intrepidity of Charles. On the ruins of Lombardy, a new mo- 



CHARLEMAGNE. 87 

narchy was raised which afterwards assumed the appellation of 
the kingdom of Italy. Charles, although he had extended the 
papal dominions, was careful to restrain the temporal authority 
of the pope within due bounds. All affairs were conducted in 
Rome by the king's orders. The money coined there bore his 
impression ; the public acts were dated according to the years of 
his reign; an appeal was made to his officers from all the sen- 
tences pronounced by the popes with regard to their vassals ; the 
sovereign pontiffs themselves had recourse to the justice of the 
French monarch in their own personal concerns. Charles having 
settled his affairs in Italy, returned to Saxony, where he held a 
parliament in his camp, on the banks of the Lippe. The atten- 
tion of this assembly was chiefly directed to the adoption of 
means for stifling the spirit of revolt ; and they imagined that 
they had effectually fulfilled this object of their convention: but 
the French troops had scarcely passed the Rhine, when Whitikind 
again excited that martial people to assert their native claim of 
independence. 

Charles, engaged at this time in other projects, sent three of his 
lieutenants to chastise them. 

In this they were mistaken, for after a severe battle the slaugh- 
ter in the army of Charles was dreadful ; in which many officers 
and persons of distinction were killed. The defeat of his army 
proved a source of uneasiness to Charles, who was little accus- 
tomed to the reception of such intelligence. He immediately 
marched into Saxony, with a full resolution to inflict exemplary 
vengeance on men whose sole crime consisted in repelling the 
attempts of a foreign invader. At his approach their troops dis- 
persed, and the nobles flocked to him with protestations of inno- 
cence and fidelity ; but, though he met with no opposition, he 
seized four thousand five hundred of the insurgents, and ordered 
them to be beheaded, as an example to their countrymen. By 
this unprecedented execution, Charles lost all claims to humanity. 
Charles, after having spent the first forty-two years of his reign 
in continual warfare, experienced the satisfaction of peace and 



gg CHARLEMAGNE. 

tranquillity. But this was embittered by the death of his son 
Pepin, whom he had placed on the throne of Italy ; an infant son 
of that prince, named Bernard, was appointed by the disconsolate 
emperor to succeed his father. In a few months after this severe 
loss, he had fresh cause for lamentation in the death of his eldest 
son Charles, who died in the thirty-fifth year of his age. All his 
hopes were now centered in his remaining child, Louis, King of 
Aquitaine, a prince who bore the highest reputation for prudence, 
economy and valor. The aged emperor, feeling his strength 
decay, and the weight of public cares becoming too burdensome 
for him to bear without assistance, now determined on the asso- 
ciation of Louis to the empire. Arrayed in his imperial robes, 
with a crown of gold upon his head, and supported by his son, 
he repaired to the magnificent chapel which he had built at Aix- 
la-Chapelle ; and after inculcating in the mind of his youthful 
colleague the duties of a monarch and a man, he commanded him 
to take the crown, which had been placed on the altar, and put it 
on his head. 

The increasing infirmities of Charlemagne soon warned him to 
prepare for his end. But a few months after the association of 
Louis, he was attacked with a fever, and conscious of his danger, 
he beheld with firmness the approach of death : and after a faint- 
ing fit, in a low and faltering voice, he uttered these words — " Into 
thy hands. Lord, I commend my spirit" — and immediately expired, 
in the seventy-second year of his age, and forty-seventh of his 
reign. His counsels to his son Louis, which exhort him to con- 
sider the people as his children ; to be gentle in his administration, 
but firm in the execution of justice ; to reward merit; to promote 
his nobles gradually ; to choose his ministers deliberately, but 
never to remove them capriciously ; are maxims that cannot be 
too strongly recommended, nor too easily adopted. The body of 
Charlemagne was deposited in a vault, in his chapel at Aix-la- 
Chapelle, where he was seated on a throne of gold, arrayed in the 
imperial robes, and in the hair-cloth which he commonly wore ; 
with his sword at his side— the crown on his head-— the Bible on 










//./. iJi„>.-/i\ 



LOUIS THE FIRST. 89 

his knees, and his shield and his sceptre at his feet. These last 
were of gold, and deemed highly valuable in a superstitious age, 
less from the precious metal of which they were composed, than 
from the benediction which had been bestowed on them by Pope 
Leo. Beneath the regal mantle was placed the large pilgrim's 
purse, which he always carried with him on his journey to Rome. 
The whole sepulchre was scented with perfumes, and filled with 
a vast quantity of pieces of gold. Over the entrance was erected 
a supurb triumphal arch, on which the following epitaph was 
inscribed : — Here rests the body of Charles the Great, and ortho- 
dox Emperor, who gloriously extended the kingdom of the 
French, and governed it happily during forty-seven years. 



LOUIS THE FIRST 



SURNAMED THE GENTLE. 



A. D. 814.] Louis, on the death of his father, repaired to Aix- 
la-Chapelle, where he was proclaimed king and emperor. At first 
he acquired a great reputation for piety, by his scrupulous atten- 
tion to enforce the last will of the deceased emperor ; though at 
the same time, he created many enemies by attempting to reform 
several abuses, which had either escaped notice, or met with tole- 
ration during the preceding reign. While Louis was employed 
in these domestic regulations, the Duke of Benevento sent to de- 
mand a confirmation of the treaty which he had concluded with 
Charlemagne, by which he had agreed to pay a tribute of twenty- 
five thousand sols of gold ; but Louis reduced it to seven thou- 



90 LOUIS THE FIRST. 

sand. Grimoald did homage to the new monarch and received 
from his hands a new investiture. Bernard, King of Italy, was 
also summoned to pay the same mark of subjection ; he obeyed, 
but his obedience wore so strong an appearance of constraint that 
it was evident he only waited for an opportunity to assert his in- 
dependence. Louis took from him Adelard and Vala, two grand- 
sons of Charles Martel, who were the friends of his heart and the 
leaders of his council. The first of these was transferred from 
his abbey of Corbie to the monastery of Noirmontier; and the last 
being banished from court, assumed the monastic habit, and suc- 
ceeded his brother as Abbot of Corbie. The degradation of two 
men, who had enjoyed all the confidence and esteem of Charle- 
magne, greatly injured the reputation of his successor. That part 
of his character which had hitherto been considered as meekness 
of disposition and goodness of heart, was now regarded as weak- 
ness and timidity. 

His conduct was such as rather marked the monk than bespoke 
the monarch; he passed whole days in reading the Scriptures, 
and singing psalms. 

He sent to Aquitaine for an abbot named Benedict, who, 
though a man of piety, was wholly unfit to be entrusted with 
matters of state. To him was allotted the office of receiving 
petitions and requests, and the manner in which he discharged 
his trust proved the rectitude of his intentions, but the unlimited 
and almost exclusive confidence reposed in him by the emperor, 
excited murmurs and complaints. Louis had three sons by the 
Empress Ermengarde, — Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis. 

The first he sent to Bavaria, and the second to Aquitaine, but 
gave them no titles ; so that they, in fact, could only be considered 
as governors of those territories. This was a prudent policy, 
which it would have been happy for him if he had always 
observed. Heriold, who governed a part of the kingdom of 
Denmark, came to claim the protection of Louis, as his liege 
lord, against the children of Godfrey, who had despoiled him of 
his dominions. The emperor, convinced of the justice of his 



LOUIS THE FIRST. 91 

petition, ordered the Saxons to arm in his favor, and that brave 
people, having recently been restored by Louis to certain rights 
of which his predecessor had deprived them, evinced their grati- 
tude by the alacrity with which they obeyed his commands. 
Having traversed the Elbe, and the Eyder, they entered Denmark, 
laid the whole country waste, and restored the exiled monarch to 
his lost inheritance. 

Bernard, King of Italy, son of the emperor's eldest brother, 
conceived himself treated with injustice. He was a young man 
of the age of nineteen— handsome, well-made, brave, liberal, and 
beloved by his subjects. All the malcontents, who were very 
numerous, and some of the bishops, enraged at a reform that 
was contrary to their inclinations, promised, if he would oppose 
the measures of the king, that they and all their vassals would 
openly espouse his cause. Louis, apprized of the conspiracy, 
immediately prepared to repel it, and marched without delay to 
Chalons-upon-Saone, at the head of a powerful army. This 
dispatch surprised the rebels, who fled on all sides ; while Ber- 
nard, forsaken by his troops, threw himself at the emperor's feet, 
and with the principal conspirators, submitted to his mercy. 

They were all tried, and their guilt being confirmed by their 
own confessions, Bernard and the nobles were condemned to die, 
and the bishops were degraded and confined in a monastery. 
But, as a mark of indulgence, the sentence of the former was 
mitigated, and they were permitted to purchase their lives with 
the loss of their eyes ; this cruel operation proved fatal to the 
King of Italy ; and when we reflect, that the punishment was 
inflicted by an uncle, and on a youth of the greatest accomplish- 
ments, and most amiable mind, we cannot but think that it was 
greatly disproportioned to the offence, and betrayed a want of 
feeling and humanity in Louis, that accorded but ill with his 
avowed respect for the doctrine and precepts of Christianity. 

Immediately upon the enactment of these cruel and wanton 
deeds came the death of Ermengarde, and the marriage of Louis 
with Judith, descended from the nobles of Bavaria, and the 



92 LOUIS THE FIRST. 

Dukes of Saxony, but whose beauteous form and splendid ac- 
complishments concealed an ambitious mind, the source of equal 
calamities to her consort and the empire. 

The rejoicings which attended the celebration of these nup- 
tials were inadequate to stifle, in the mind of Louis, the rising 
dictates of remorse. The cruelty and injustice of his conduct 
to his nephew, his brothers, and to Adelard and Vala, the friends 
of his father, preyed upon his spirits, and proved a continual in- 
terruption to his repose. 

A national assembly was convened at his palace of Attigny, 
and there, in presence of his prelates and nobles, he became his 
own accuser; asked forgiveness of his brothers, who were all 
present; granted a general amnesty to all who had borne arms 
against him ; recalled those whom he had banished, and restored 
them to their estates and possessions ; and finally entreated the 
bishops to suffer him to atone, by public penance, for the crimes 
he had committed. 

By a misplaced condescension of this nature, Vamba, King of 
Spain, had lost his throne ; but Louis was more fortunate — he 
regained the affection of his subjects, which his late severity 
had tended to estrange. About this time Judith gave birth to 
Charles, surnamed the Bald. Charles, the son of Judith, having 
as yet no allotment of empire, Louis proposed to dismember 
the possessions of his other children, in order to foriri a separate 
kingdom for him. 

The three princes at first refused to consent to their father's 
proposals ; but Lothaire, being gained over by the caresses of 
the empress, withdrew his opposition, and as he had held the 
young prince on the baptismal font, he promised to become his 
protector, and swore to defend him against all his enemies. 
Louis being thus assured of the support of his eldest son, con- 
voked an assembly at Worms, where he gave to Charles, with 
the title of king, that part of Germany which is bounded by the 
Danube, the Maine, the Neckar, and the Rhine ; the country of 
Orisons, and the district of Burgundy, which comprehends Ge- 
neva and the Swiss cantons. 



LOUIS THE FIRST. 93 

A slanderous calumny at this time broke out, which caused 
much wretchedness in the family of Louis. His queen Judith 
was accused of familiarities with Bernard, Count of Barcelona, 
a nobleman highly distinguished by the lustre of liis rank, and 
by his brave and enterprising spirit. His attachment to the in- 
terest of Prince Charles, and his close attention to his office, as 
chamberlain to the empress, gave birth to suspicions inimical to 
the virtue of Judith. The empress, whose mind suffered from 
those calumnies, determined to retire to a monastery ; she accord- 
ingly took the veil in the convent of Radegonda, at Poictiers. 
The Empress Judith had been in her monastic retirement but 
little more than a year, when Louis recalled her. She appeared 
before an assembly of nobles at Aix-la-Chapelle, where she swore 
to her innocence of the crimes that were laid to her charge ; and 
the accusations preferred against her were declared to be false 
and calumnious. The mind of Louis exhibited a strange mix- 
ture of virtue and weakness. Intrepid in the field, but irresolute 
in the cabinet — humane from inclination, from timidity cruel, 
he had sense enough to promulgate good and wholesome laws, 
but not sufficient spirit to enforce their observance. Injudicious 
in the choice of his ministers, he conferred favors on the un- 
worthy, and was involved in calamities from vices not his own. 
Superstitiously devout, his close attention to the minutise of a 
religion in which substance is but too frequently sacrificed to 
forms, led him to neglect the most essential duties of govern- 
ment, and entrust to favorites what he should have executed 
himself. 

In short, the virtues of Louis might have procured distinction 
in a cloister, but were by no means calculated to embellish a 
throne. 

Louis died at Mayence, in the seventy-second year of his age, 
and the twenty-seventh of his reign* This monarch was buried 
in the Church of Saint Arnoul, at Metz» By Ermengarde he had 
three sons — Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis ; and by Judith of Bava- 
ria, he had Charles, surnamed the Bald. 



CHAELES THE SECOND. 



A. D. 840,] By a will of the late monarch, the empire of 
France was divided between his three surviving sons, Lothaire, 
Louis and Charles, and the children of his deceased son Pepin. 
But the division was not satisfactory to the ambitious Lothaire, 
who conceived that with his powerful army, he could depose his 
two brothers, and become sole monarch of the empire. He, 
after some delay, however, promised to abide by the decision of 
a general assembly, which was immediately summoned to meet 
at the palace of Attigny, upon the Aisne, early in the following 
year, till which time no hostilities were to be attempted on either 
side. 

This revived the hopes of Charles, who placed a firm reli- 
ance on the affection of his subjects, and the equity of the nation, 
which began to evince a strong attachment to his interests. The 
diet assembled at the appointed time ; but Lothaire neglected to 
attend it, though it was convened at his request. This violation 
of his word, together with a second attempt to gain over the 
nobles of Paris, at length convinced the two kings that it was 
necessary they should unite their utmost endeavors to restrain 
the ambition of their eldest brother. A junction of their forces 
was accordingly effected, on the confines of Lorraine ; where, 
though greatly superior in number to Lothaire, they made the 
most equitable proposals of accommodation. To these the 
Italian monarch pretended to listen ; but he only waited till the 
son of Pepin had joined him with a strong reinforcement from 
Aquitaine, when he suddenly put a stop to the negotiation, and 
advanced to the plains of Fontenay, a village in the Auxerrois, 



CHARLES THE SECOND. gg 

where a most bloody and obstinate engagement took place. 
The cause of justice prevailed, and Louis and Charles were left 
masters of the field. 

It has been pretended, by some modern writei^, that one hun- 
dred thousand men fell in the battle ; but this must be a gross 
exaggeration, as Nithard, a cotemporary author, who was present 
at the action, takes no notice of a circumstance that, if true, could 
not have escaped his attention. 

Lothaire, compelled to fly, took refuge at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
where he exerted his utmost efforts to give new strength to his 
declining party. As the Saxons had been partly compelled to 
embrace Christianity, he sought to secure their assistance by 
permitting them to renew their ancient laws and customs. 

When by his intrigues, he had collected a sufficient force, he 
made an unsuccessful attempt on the borders of Bavaria; then 
directing his march towards Paris, he laid the whole country 
waste ; till, being stopped by an inundation of the Seine, he was 
compelled to return, without accomplishing the object of his ex- 
pedition. 

Lothaire's design was to effect a division between the two 
kings his brothers, but all his efforts for this purpose proved 
fruitless. Charles and Louis, convinced that their common safety 
depended on their union, solemnly confirmed the league that 
subsisted between them, and renewed their alliance, by an oath 
drawn up in their respective languages : Louis swore in the Ro- 
man language, that he might be understood by the French to 
whom his oath was addressed ; and Charles in the Tudesca?i, to 
render himself intelligible to his brother's subjects. The two 
princes, though of superior force, again sought to bring their 
brother to an accommodation ; but he proudly refused to admit 
their ambassadors to an audience, and even dismissed them with 
ignominy. An insult so gross excited universal indignation ; the 
troops of Louis and Charles loudly demanded to be led against 
the man whom they justly considered as the author of those 
troubles to which the empire was exposed. Their leaders cheer- 



gg CHARLES THE SECOND. 

fully complied with their request ; the army was put in motion ; 
and, on its approach, the Bishop of Mayence, who had been 
appointed to guard the banks of the Moselle, deserted his post, 
and fled with the utmost precipitation. Lothaire, unable to resist 
the torrent, left his palace at Sinsik, and took refuge at Aix-la- 
Chapelle; but, hearing that his brothers were advancing, he 
stripped his fathers magnificent palace of all its valuable effects 
and retired towards the Rhone, with the intention, if pursued, to 
pass on to Italy. A doubt now arose in the minds of the con- 
querors, from the uncertainty whether they ought to take pos- 
session of a country which there was no one to dispute with 
them, or to restore it to a brother who had left it from his in- 
ability to defend it. This knotty point was referred to the 
decision of the bishops ; the episcopal character, according to the 
prevailing superstition of the times, being gifted with superior 
knowledge, as well on political and martial affairs as on eccle- 
siastical matters. 

From this absurd idea was derived that enormous extent of 
authority possessed by the prelates, who, being empowered to de- 
cide on all questions of whatever nature, found the means of turn- 
ing everything to their own advantage. 

Princes themselves increased, by their conduct, the ambition 
of the hierarchy; and, by accepting crowns from the hands of 
the bishops, gave them the power to dispose of them. Such 
prelates as followed the court assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 
order to decide on the fate of Lothaire ; and they all declared, 
with one voice, that he had forfeited his right to the crown, and 
that his subjects were consequently absolved from their oaths of 
allegiance. They next asked Louis and Charles if they would 
promise to govern with greater justice than Lothaire ; to this the 
monarchs, of course, repUed in the affirmative ; and the bishop, 
who presided, then said — " We permit you, by divine authority, 
to reign in the place of your brother, to govern his kingdom ac- 
cording to the will of God — We exhort you, we command you 
to do so." — In virtue of this arbitrary decision, which established 



CHARLES THE SECOND. 97 

a most dangerous precedent, and showed, in the monarchs who 
submitted to it, an astonishing degree of imbecility, the provinces 
which Lothaire had abandoned were equally divided between 
the brothers. But this partition was speedily changed, for the 
emperor, conscious of his own inability to maintain a war against 
forces so superior to his own, made his pride subservient to his 
interest, and now humbly solicited that accommodation which 
he had so recently rejected with disdain. His brothers, sin- 
cerely wishing for the restoration of tranquillity, listened to his 
proposals with joy; and the three monarchs meeting at Verdun, 
a new division of the empire took place. Charles, surnamed 
the Bald, was secured in the possession of Paris, Aquitaine and 
Septimania, and consequently King of France ; to Lothaire were 
confirmed, with the title of emperor, all Italy, Provence, French 
Compte, the Lyonnois, and all that country which lies within the 
Rhone, the Rhine, and the Saone, the Meuse, and the Scheld ; 
and Bavaria, with the rest of Germany, was assigned to Louis — 
when he acquired the appellation of "Louis the German." To 
this territory were annexed the cities of Mayence, Worms, and 
Spires, with their dioceses, merely for the purpose of supplying 
him with wine, no vineyards having been yet planted in any part 
of his German dominions. 

Abelard, a nobleman of Aquitaine, whose granddaughter Er- 
mentrude, Charles had recently married, acted as a mediator 
between the contending parties, and promoted the conclusion of 
the present treaty, by which the flames of civil war were for the 
present extinguished. For seventeen years of the reign of Charles, 
his kingdom suiFered continually from revolts, incursions and de- 
predations. At this time Lothaire was seized with a dangerous 
disease. 

Alarmed at the prospect of death, he resigned the imperial 
sceptre, and assumed the monastic habit, in the abbey of Prum, 
where he expired before the conclusion of the first week of his 
monastic life, in the sixty-first year of his age, and fifteenth of Iiis 
reign. 
7 



98 CHARLES THE SECOND. 

Before his death, he had divided his dominions between his 
three sons. Louis succeeded him to the empire ; to Lothaire he 
bequeathed the kingdom of Austrasia; and to Charles, Burgundy 
and Provence. Their uncles, faithful to the engagements they had 
contracted at Verdun, suffered them to take possession of their 
respective dominions without opposition. 

Charles, oppressed with mortification, anxiety and fatigue, was 
seized on his journey from Italy, where he had been summoned 
by the Roman pontiiF to his protection from the Saracens, with 
a violent fever; and Sedicias, his physician, by birth a Jew, be- 
traying the confidence of his master, administered as a febrifuge 
a dose of poison, of which he died in the cottage of a peasant, 
at a small village of Brios, in the thirty-eighth year of a turbulent 
reign, and in the fifty-fourth year of his age. Charles had six 
sons by his Queen Ermentrude, of whom only Louis, his succes- 
sor, survived him. Charles, says Pasquier, had few virtues, and 
many defects. He was ambitious and enterprising, but weak, 
timid, and irresolute; capable of conceiving great projects, but 
destitute of spirit and ability to put them into execution. 

From his reign may be dated the dangerous augmentation of 
ecclesiastical arrogance, and the rapid decline of the Carlo vingian 
race. 



LOUIS THE SECOND 



SURNAMED THE STAMMERER. 



A. D. 877.] As soon as Louis was apprised of his father's 
death, he repaired to Compeigne, where he assembled the nobles 
and prelates of the realm, in order to proceed to the ceremony of 
proclamation. Though his right to the throne was incontestable, 
he thought it necessary to secure the attachment of the nobles, by 
profusely lavishing the honor and estates of the crown. 

Italy, during this time, was without a sovereign ; governed by 
Pope John the Eighth. John, under the influence of the church, 
endeavored in vain to raise his son to the imperial dignity ; but 
his measures were strenuously opposed by Lambert, Duke of 
Spoleto, and Aldebert, Marquis of Tuscany. The pontiff, unable to 
resist the power of these nobles, abandoned Rome, and embarked 
for France. 

The reception of Pope John was such as he might naturally have 
expected from a monarch whose cause he had espoused with ardor. 
In a council assembled at Troyes, the Roman pontiff presided, 
and the authority and influence of the church were not neglected 
by its holy father. Among the various canons framed to support 
the episcopal dignity, it was ordained, that all secular powers, 
under the penalty of excommunication, should observe the respect 
due to bishops ; and all persons, however high their rank, were 
precluded from sitting down in their presence without permission. 

But although the pope repeated at the desire of Louis the cere- 
mony of his coronation, and placed with his own hands the 
crown on his head, yet his fervor soon cooled towards a prince 



100 LOUIS THE SECOND, 

whom he discovered to be destitute of power and capacity ; and 
his interests induced him to seek a more effectual support in the 
friendship of the factions and independent nobles of his court. 
The thunders of the Vatican, which he brandished against the 
rebellious peers of France, were rather intended to deceive the 
sovereign, than dismay the conspirators ; and John, after having 
in vain exhorted the nation to respect the distress of Rome, and 
to unsheath the sword against the presumptuous Saracens, pro- 
ceeded on his return to Italy. During the pope's visit to France, 
the marriage of Carloman, the son of Louis, with a daughter of 
Boson, was celebrated at Troyes with great magnificence. After 
the council was dissolved, Louis repaired to Compeigne to receive 
the report of the ambassadars whom he had sent into Germany 
to negotiate a peace. 

The answer they brought was favorable to his wishes ; and the 
two monarchs meeting at Merzen, a treaty was concluded, which 
they signed at Fornou, a royal mansion, situated between Maes- 
tricht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. With regard to the kingdom of Lor- 
raine, it was agreed, that the partition which had been made 
between Charles the Bald and Louis the German, should be strictly 
adhered to ; in Provence each party was to keep possession of 
what he then enjoyed; and it was determined, that in Italy mat- 
ters should remain as they were, till the next year, when a coun- 
cil should be convened, which the four sovereigns of the house of 
Charlemagne were to be invited to attend. Bernard, Marquis of 
Septimania, notwithstanding the anathema that had been pro- 
nounced against him at the council of Troyes, notwithstanding 
the sentence by which Louis had deprived him of his estates, still 
kept an army on foot, and set the power of the king at defiance. 
As Louis advanced at the head of his troops to chastise the inso- 
lence and audacity of this rebellious subject, he was seized at 
Troyes with a disorder that speedily proclaimed his approaching 
dissolution. 

He sent his eldest son Louis into Burgundy, under the con- 
duct of Duke Boson, and of Bernard, Count of Auvergne, the 



LOUIS THE THIRD AND CARLOMAN. lOl 

abbot Hugh, Thierri his grand chamberlaine, and some other 
noblemen; then ordering his attendants to convey him to Com- 
peigne he there died— not without suspicions of being poisoned 
— on Good Friday, in the second year of his reign, and the 
thirty-first of his age. He was interred in the .abbey of Saint 
Corneille. Louis had by Ansegarde two sons, Louis and Carlo- 
man; and Charles distinguished by the opprobrious epithet of 
simple, born some months after the death of his father. 



LOUIS THE THIRD AND CAELOMAN. 



A. D. 879.] The king, on his death-bed, had commissioned 
Odo, Bishop of Beauvais, and Count Albruin, to carry the crown 
and sceptre, with the other emblems of royalty, to his eldest son 
Louis, whose coronation he ordered them to forward with the 
utmost expedition. 

To the accomplishment of these orders no possible opposition 
could have occurred, had not the kingdom been divided by two 
powerful factions ; one of which was headed by Duke Boson, 
Hugh the Abbot, Thierri the Grand Chamberlain, and Bernard, 
Count of Auvergne: the leaders of the other were Gauzelin, 
Abbot of Saint Denis, and Conrad, Count of Paris. 

These last, having met at Creil, invited Louis of Germany 
into the kingdom, who accordingly advanced as far as Metz, 
where he experienced the most flattering reception. Their 
apology for thus inviting an usurper to fill the throne of their 
lawful sovereign, was founded on the incapacity and inexperience 
of the children of Louis, and the known prudence, valor and 



102 LOUIS THE THIRD AND CARLOMAN. 

moderation of the German prince. Such was their pretext — ^but 
the real motives of their treacherous conduct were interest, and a 
desire of revenge. Boson, however, and the others of his party, 
being determined to fulfil the last injunctions of the deceased 
monarch, repaired to Meaux, in order to deliberate on the dan- 
gers which threatened the state. The news of the invasion by 
Louis, filled them with alarm ; and having no army to impede 
his progress, they resolved to purchase his forbearance by ceding 
to him that part of the kingdom of Lorraine, which had been 
allotted to Charles the Bald. This proposal was accepted; and 
the king immediately returned to Germany, where his presence 
was required. The report of this second irruption spread a 
general alarm throughout the kingdom. The nobles, who had 
preserved their fidelity to the family of the deceased monarch, 
saw no other remedy for the calamities which threatened them 
than the speedy coronation of the young princes. The king, on 
his death-bed, had appointed his eldest son Louis his sole suc- 
cessor; but the dread of displeasing Boson, by the exclusion of 
his son-in-law Carloman, induced the nobles to adopt the resolution 
of placing them both on the throne, and of dividing the kingdom 
between them, according to the ancient custom of the realm. It 
was this division, so difficult to make, that had urged them to de- 
lay their inauguration so long ; and even now they were under the 
necessity of deferring it to a future time. The princes, therefore, 
were sent to the Abbey of Ferrieres, where they were anointed 
and crowned by Ansegise, Archbishop of Sens. At this time 
they had attained their fifteenth and sixteenth year. The courts 
of their respective dominions were not fixed till the following 
year. Aquitaine and Burgundy were allotted to Carloman, and 
France and Neustria to Louis. Such was the state of affairs in 
France, when Boson, taking advantage of the minority of the 
young princes, at length revealed his perfidious designs. Pro- 
mises, presents, entreaties and threats were so opportunely and 
successfully exerted, that—" by the sacred council of Mante, in 
the district of Vienne, assembled in the name of our Lord, and 



LOUIS THE THIRD AND CARLOMAN. 103 

by inspiration of his Divine Majesty,''' he was elected and 
crowned King of Provence. This election was made and con- 
firmed by the Archbishops of Vienne, Lyons, and by all the pre- 
lates south of the Rhine ; by which the extent of the new mo- 
narchy may be known. It is sometimes denominated in history, 
the kingdom of Aries, from the name of its capital; and at 
others the kingdom of Provence. Thus the sons of Louis be- 
held themselves with indignation despoiled of the fairest part of 
their inheritance, by the sword of a powerful neighbor, and the 
intrigues of a faithless kinsman. The royal brothers, delivered 
from the terror of foreign invasion, prepared to chastise the in- 
solence of domestic rebellion. Strengthened by their new allies, 
they marched with a numerous army through Burgundy, and 
entered the revolted territories of their presumptuous vassal. 
The confederate forces, assisted by those of Charles, King of 
Italy, formed the siege of Vienne, defended with masculine valor 
by Hermengarde, the consort of Boson. But the princes were 
soon compelled to separate, and while the continuance of the 
siege devolved on Carloman, Charles returned to Rome to receive 
the imperial crown, and Louis, with a considerable detachment, 
directed his march against the Normans. But the promising vir- 
tues of this youthful monarch were cut off by a premature 
death. As he was hastening to assist the Duke of Brittany, in 
the expulsion of the Normans from the banks of the Loire, he 
was seized with a fever, that compelled him to attempt a return 
to Paris. 

He was conveyed to Saint Denis in a litter, and there ex- 
pired in the twenty-second year of his age, and the third of his 
reign. The loss of this prince was deeply deplored by his sub- 
jects, who admired his virtue, his valor and moderation. Louis 
dying without children, no opposition was made to the accession 
of Carloman ; accordingly that prince was crowned King of 
France. Carloman lived to enjoy the sole monarchy but a short 
time, for within two years of the death of his brother, as he was 
enjoying the amusement of the chase, an erring javelin aimed at 



104 CHARLES THE FAT. 

the boar, by one of his attendants, pierced his thigh, and in six 
days brought him to a premature grave. 

The memory of this prince is endeared to us by the pious 
deceit which he practised on his death-bed : He endeavored to 
screen from the mistaken resentment of the public, his unfortu- 
nate domestic, by imputing his wound to the rage of the animal 
he pursued. 



CHAELES THE FAT. 



A. D. 884.] Had a proper respect been paid to the rules of 
succession, Charles, surnamed the Simple, the posthumous son 
of Louis the Second, would, on the decease of his brothers with- 
out children, have ascended the throne of France. But the 
kingdom being incessantly exposed to the depredations of the 
Normans, it was deemed imprudent to fix the diadem on the brows 
of an infant, and the emperor Charles of Italy, Germany and 
Lorraine, whose age was mature, and whose power extensive, 
was called upon to succeed the generous Carloman. 

Prompt to obey the pleasing citation, he hastened to Gpndre- 
ville, where he received the homage of the nobles, together with 
their oaths of allegiance. 

Charles the Simple remained under the care of Hugh the Ab- 
bot, who was confirmed by the emperor in his government of 
that part of Neustria which lies between the Seine and the Loire, 
and which was then called the Duchy of France. 

Charles was now become one of the most powerful princes in 
the world ; but his capacity was greatly unequal to the extent of 



29 




^ill;i''?'iV'iN\ 







in. (V77//.v/n 



CHARLES THE FAT. 105 

his empire; and that good fortune which ought to have increased 
his authority only tended to expose his weakness. Sigefroy, at 
this time, in order to revenge the assassination of his brother God- 
frey, Duke of Holland, entered the Seine with a fleet of seven 
hundred sail, and spread his devastations as far as Paris ; and 
after having taken and burned the town of Pontoise, he laid siege 
to that city. Paris was then but a small island, comprehending 
that part of the present metropolis which is distinguished by the 
appellation of the city. It was approached by two wooden 
bridges, the present Pont au Change, and the Petit Pont, each 
of which was defended by a strong and lofty tower. The siege 
was pressed by Sigefroy with uncommon vigor. By a skillful 
exertion of their battering machines a breach was made in the 
walls. But three furious attempts to enter it were rendered abor- 
tive by the persevering valor of the Parisians, who were headed 
by Eudes, Count of Paris, and Bishop Gauzelin, who not only 
animated the people by his exhortations, but roused them by his 
example. This martial prelate was frequently seen on the breach 
with a helmet on his head, a quiver at his back, and a battle-axe 
at his girdle, driving back the enemy from a cross which he had 
planted on the ramparts. He was seconded by many a valiant 
knight, who signalized his courage on this trying occasion ; but 
his nephew, the Abbe Elbe, distinguished himself in a peculiar 
manner, and by the prodigies of valor he performed, excited the 
astonishment of his friends, and spread terror and dismay through 
the enemy's ranks. 

Never was greater fury displayed in attack, nor greater con- 
stancy and firmness in defence, than at this memorable siege, 
which lasted a year and a half, and during which the Parisians 
experienced all the horrors of pestilence and famine. The em- 
peror, in the meantime, remained in the vicinity of Frankfort, from 
whence he contented himself with sending such supplies as the 
capital required. 

Twice was Count Henry dispatched with provision and troops 
for the relief of the garrison. The first time he succeeded, but in his 



106 CHARLES THE FAT. 

second attempt he was surprised, and with his whole army cut to 
pieces. The news of the death of this intrepid young nobleman 
at length determined the king to march in person ; and the hopes 
of the Parisians were revived by his appearance on the Mount of 
Mars, which is now called Montmartre. 

Yet Sigefroy beheld the hostile standards with an undaunted 
countenance, and steadfastly maintained his station before the gates 
of the city. 

The emperor, awed by the firmness of an enemy whom he might 
have overwhelmed, basely consented to purchase a peace which 
he might have commanded. On condition of receiving seven 
thousand pounds' weight of silver, the Normans gladly consented 
to a peace ; and as the money could not be immediately paid, 
Charles allowed them to pass the winter in Burgundy, where they 
committed the most dreadful devastations. After the conclusion 
of this shameful treaty, the emperor returned to Germany loaded 
with the contempt and hatred of the French. His German 
subjects were soon impressed with similar sentiments ; and they 
began to look upon him as a man wholly unfit for the station 
he enjoyed. A timid disposition and an ill state of health, con- 
fined him constantly to his palace. Incessantly tormented with 
the fear of the devil, whom he fancied he had seen in his youth, 
and conscious of his own inability to support the burden of a vast 
empire, he gave up the reins of government to Ludard, Bishop of 
Verceil. That minister exerted a despotic sway in the emperor's 
name, and those who were anxious to dethrone the prince began 
by attacking his favorite. The bishop was accordingly accused 
of holding a criminal intercourse with the empress; and as 
Charles was particularly delicate in that point, he was easily in- 
duced to believe what he dreaded, and, indeed, what he deserved. 
The prelate was banished from court, and the princess repudiated. 
She retired to the abbey of Audlaw, in Alsace, which she had 
richly endowed, where she died, highly esteemed for her prudence 
and virtue. Now that Charles was deprived of the advice and 
assistance of his minister, the native imbecility of his mind be- 



CHARLES THE FAT. 107 

came visible to every one. He even became conscious of it him- 
self, and this idea inspired him with the most melancholy reflec- 
tions. 

Having convoked a parliament at Tribur, between Mayence 
and Oppenheim, the nobles and prelates who were present re- 
marked the uneasiness that appeared in his countenance, and the 
defect in his understanding, and pronouncing him unlit for royalty, 
began to deliberate without delay on the choice of a successor to 
the throne. 

Charles the Simple was indisputably the lawful heir, but his 
youth being still regarded as a bar to his succession, all the efforts 
of his friends proved inadequate to procure him the crown of 
France. 

The sole descendant (in a direct line) from Charlemagne was 
thus excluded from the dominions of his ancestors, which were 
now offered to Arnoul, a natural son of Carloman, in direct viola- 
tion of the rules established under the second race of kings, which 
deprived natural children of all rank in society, and consequently 
placed an effectual impediment in their way to the throne. 

Arnoul accepted with joy that sceptre which he was actually 
preparing to wrest from its lawful possessor ; and the revolt was 
so general that, in less than three days, his authority was acknow- 
ledged through the whole extent of Germany. Charles in the 
meantime was reduced to the most dreadful situation. Driven from 
his palace, without a servant to attend him in his illness, he was 
deprived of the mere necessaries of Hfe, and yet was afraid to ask 
for assistance ; nor did any one dare to afford him relief, through 
fear of incurring suspicions of disaffection to the usurper. An 
application to Arnoul at length procured him the assignment of a 
few petty fxofs in Germany, whose revenues scarcely afforded him 
a miserable subsistence. 

Grief, or (as some writers have asserted), jooison brought him to 
the grave in the fourth year of his reign, and in three months from 
the time of his deposal. He was interred in the monastery of 
Richenoue, situated on an island in the Lake of Constance. On 



108 EUDES. 

the death of this prince the kingdom became a prey to the am- 
bitious machinations of the nobles. Though the sovereign autho- 
rity had been almost unanimously voted to Arnoul, yet numerous 
rivals now started up to dispute his power, and lay claim to the 
vacant throne. 

But Eudes, son of Robert, Count of Anjou, and brother to 
Charles Martel, enjoyed the esteem and affection of the people, 
and bore avs^ay the palm from his numerous competitors. 



EUDES. 



A. D. 887.] At a parliament assembled at Compeigne, the 
nobles and prelates of the realm proceeded to the election of a 
monarch ; and Eudes, Count of Paris and Orleans, and Duke of 
Burgundy, was declared to be the object of their choice. To the 
remembrance of his father, Robert, who had died in defending the 
state from the depredations of the Normans, and to the glorious 
feats which he himself had achieved, in the defence of the capital, 
was this nobleman indebted for the crown. The ceremony of his 
consecration was performed at Sens, by Vatier, archbishop of that 
diocese. 

The prudent precautions adopted by Eudes, on his accession to 
the throne, were well calculated to secure the possession of it. 

He publicly protested that, having been appointed guardian to 
young Charles, he only accepted the diadem with the view of 
restoring it to the lawful heir, so soon as he should be sufficiently 
old to govern the kingdom. Threatened with a destructive war 
by the Germans, he sent to Arnoul, and assured him that if his 



EUDES, 109 

nomination to the throne was likely to disturb the tranquillity of 
France, he was ready to resign the sceptre. He even went to 
Worms, where he had an interview with Arnoul, into whose 
hands he surrendered the crown, solemnly swearing that he would 
never wear it but with his free consent. The King of Germany, 
flattered by this mark of deference and condescension, restored 
the diadem, and promised to forbear from all kind of opposition 
to the government of Eudes. This prince began his reign by an 
earnest endeavor to repress the insolence of the nobility, and to 
humble the foreign and domestic enemies of the state. At the 
head of one thousand horse, he defeated an army of twenty thou- 
sand Normans in the forest of Montfaucon ; and this glorious 
victory would have been attended with extensive advantages, had 
not Eudes been hastily recalled from the pursuit by a revolt in 
Aquitaine. His presence restored the allegiance of that pro- 
vince ; but the Normans had taken advantage of his absence, and 
erected their victorious banners on the walls of Meaux, Toul and 
Verdun. Even Paris itself was again insulted by the licentious 
arms of these northern adventurers. Their destructive incur- 
sions into Lorraine were successfully repelled by the King of 
Germany ; but in France, a scene of anarchy and discord pre- 
sented itself on every side. The nobles of each province dis- 
obeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and exercised 
perpetual hostilities against their equals and neighbors. An in- 
surrection in Provence at this time was followed by violent 
commotions, excited by the nobles of Paris. Count Walgaire, 
though related to Eudes, was the first to take up arms in favor 
of the infant Charles ; but having seized the important city of 
Laon, it was besieged by Eudes, who speedily compelled the 
garrison to surrender, and sentenced Walgaire to lose his head. 
Aquitaine once more erected the standard of revolt; thither the 
monarch repaired at the head of a victorious army, and had re- 
duced all the rebels to fly before him, and take shelter in a single 
town, when he was summoned back to Paris, where the malcon- 
tents, more irritated than terrified at the fate of Walgaire, had 



no CHARLES THE THIRD. 

openly espoused the cause of the lawful heir to the throne. 
Charles, only thirteen years of age, was conducted to Rheims, and 
crowned by the archbishop, who published a long apology for 
his conduct, and exhorted all the sovereigns of the earth to under- 
take the defence of his pupil against the usurper. 



CHARLES THE THIED 



SURNAMED THE SIMPLE. 



A. D. 893.] The King of Germany was highly displeased 
with the archbishop. He accordingly wrote to that prelate, threat- 
ening to make him feel the effects of such conduct. The arch- 
bishop replied,' — that seeing the kingdom exposed to the depre- 
dations of the Normans, he had thought it his duty to consent to 
the coronation of Eudes, who was alone capable of defending the 
state; but that Charles, having now attained an age at which, 
with the assistance of his ministers, he might safely be entrusted 
with the reins of government, he could not refuse to comply with 
the unanimous request of the nobles who called him to the throne 
of his ancestors; and that, at a time when so many subjects 
aspired to the crown, he deemed it dangerous and improper for 
him to set an example of infidelity to the lawful heir. These 
arguments, however, were insufficient to convince the ambitious 
monarch ; but the commotions in Italy, and the revolt of some 
tributary states, induced him to dissemble. 

He saw the army of Eudes on the point of attacking the royal- 



CHARLES THE THIRD. HI 

ists, and he resolved to wait the event of the action before he de- 
clared himself. 

Victory decided in favor of Eudes, and the youthful king was 
compelled to take refuge at the court of Germany. Charles, 
after remaining some time in exile, returned to France, and took 
possession of the provinces of Champagne and Burgundy ; and 
Eudes himself, through the persuasions of the Archbishop of 
Rheims, soon after extinguished the torch of discord by acknow- 
ledging the sovereignty of that prince, and only retaining, under 
an oath of homage and fidelity, the country from the Seine to the 
Pyrenees. He survived but a short time to enjoy the tranquillity 
established by his own moderation. Three months after his ab- 
dication, he expired at La Fere, in Picardy, in the fortieth year 
of his age — esteemed by the Normans whom he had vanquished, 
beloved by the people whom he had protected, and hated, yet 
dreaded, by the nobility whose oppressions he had firmly op- 
posed. This reunion of the kingdoms might have been produc- 
tive of the greatest advantages, had the power of the monarch 
been sufiicient to restrain the daring attempts of his ambitious 
nobles ; but the weakness of the government tended to increase 
their arrogance, and their audacity was carried to such a height, 
that in a short time the kingdom was divided into a number of 
petty sovereignties, each of which asserted its independence of 
the crown. 

Hence all was anarchy and confusion. The authority of the 
king was reduced to a shadow, and the strength of the nation 
nearly annihilated. Such was the state of France when attacked 
by an enemy, who, to the most intrepid courage, united the most 
extensive views. Rolla was a powerful chieftain, who had been 
originally possessed of an independent principality in Denmark, 
of which the cruelty and perfidy of the reigning monarch had 
unjustly deprived him. Compelled to take refuge in a remote 
corner of Scandinavia, he resolved to repair the loss he had sus- 
tained by following the example of his countrymen in commit- 
ting depredations on the more southern coasts of Europe. His 



112 CHARLES THE THIRD. 

first attempt was on England, in the latter end of the reign of 
Alfred ; but finding the island in a proper posture of defence, and 
governed by a wise and courageous prince, he prudently desisted 
from his enterprise, and repaired to France, where he was suf- 
fered to spread his destructive ravages over the greatest part of 
the kingdom with impunity. He continued his devastations for 
some years with uninterrupted success, which so harassed the 
French, that they at length compelled their sovereign to sue for 
peace. As Rolla was victorious, he imposed such terms on 
Charles as best suited his convenience. 

A cession of territory was an object he insisted on; and the 
king was reduced to purchase a peace by the sacrifice of one of 
his most fertile provinces. 

A greater part of the extensive country of Neustria was yielded 
to the Dane, which was thenceforward denominated Normandy, 
from its new inhabitants, and consisted of all the province which 
now bears that name, excepting the small district of Bayeaux, 
which did not fall under the dominion of the Norman dukes till 
many years after. For this he was required to do homage to the 
crown; and he repaired to Clair-upon-Epte (where this disgraceful 
treaty was signed) for that purpose. In order to attach Rolla more 
firmly to his interests, Charles gave him his daughter Gisele in 
marriage ; but required his conversion to Christianity as a pre- 
vious condition. 

This was cheerfully complied with by the Norman, who 
accordingly received baptism from the hands of Francis, Arch- 
bishop of Rouen, and was named Robert, from Robert, Count of 
Paris, who answered for him at the baptism font. 

" The grace of this holy sacrament," says Mezeray, " operated 
so powerful a regeneration in Rolla that ' he became one of the 
best princes of the age.' " 

Certain it is that he governed his newly-acquired territories 
with great equity and moderation. 

He treated the French, who submitted to his sway, with justice 
and lenity ; and, reclaiming his followers from those inveterate 



CHARLES THE THIRD. 113 

habits of plunder to which they had been accustomed from their 
cradle, effected the establishment of good order and salutary laws 
throughout his dominions. The only flaw in the character of 
RoUa, was his barbarity to his wife, who died of a broken heart, 
in consequence of his ill treatment; and when Charles sent two 
of his officers to remonstrate with him on the impropriety of his 
conduct, he had them both put to death. 

Charles might have maintained a successful struggle with his 
enemies, but for the treachery of Herbert, Count of Vermandois. 
This nobleman, being resolved to seize the person of his sove- 
reign, sent the Count of Senlis to assure him of his loyalty, and 
of his readiness to declare in his favor, together with his nume- 
rous vassals. Surprised at the news, the fugitive prince at first 
hesitated ; but as the count was his relation, being descended, like 
himself, in a right line from Charlemagne, he was at length pre- 
vailed on to dismiss his fears and to give the meeting requested 
at Saint Quintin. There the reception he experienced from the 
perfidious Herbert tended to confirm his hopes, and diminish his 
scruples. 

But he had no sooner dismissed his followers, than his person 
was seized, and during the night secretly conveyed to Chateau 
Thierri. Herbert, after this act of baseness, repaired to the court 
of Burgundy, to congratulate the new monarch on the capture of 
his rival. The unfortunate Charles was soon after removed from 
Chateau Thierri to confinement at Peronne, where he died soon 
after, a sacrifice to the ambition of his nobles. He was in the 
fiftieth year of his age and thirtieth of his reign. By Egiva, sister 
to Athelstan, King of England, he had Louis d^Outre-Mer. This 
monarch was buried at the abbey of Saint Fourcy. Egiva, with 
her infant, repaired to England in order to secure him from the 
rage of faction, and treachery of pretended friends. 
8 



RODOLPH. 



A. D. 923.] Historians give us a very short account of the 
reign of this monarch. At an assembly of nobles, convened for 
the purpose of selecting from among the neighboring princes, one 
suitable for their purpose, they elected Rodolph or Raoul, who 
was accordingly proclaimed king at Rheims. The whole empire 
at this time was in a state of warfare. Rodolph was continually 
employed either in the repression of domestic feuds, or the repul- 
sion of foreign invasions. Having repelled an attempt of the 
Normans to extend their domains, he repaired to Lorraine, 
whither he was invited by the nobles, and, having reduced a great 
part of that kingdom, he compelled the King of Germany to de- 
mand a cessation of hostilities. He next turned his arms against 
William, Duke of Aquitaine, who, unable to oppose his superior 
strength, averted his resentment by a feigned submission, and 
extorted homage. 

It was at this period a cruel and indigested government, where 
force alone was acknowledged as law ; an heterogeneous mixture 
of monarchy and oligarchy, where every one proportioned the 
extent of his power to his ability in acquiring it. 

Such is the consequence of usurpation, and of a deviation from 
established rules and lawful authority. 

Rodolph died at Auxerre in the twelfth year of a turbulent and 
boisterous reign. 



33 







\):j..arii>.-/>\ 



LOUIS THE FOURTH. 



A. D. 936.] Louis was but fifteen when called to the throne 
of his ancestors ; he had been absent from his native country 
thirteen years. He was attended by a large number of nobles 
and prelates to Laon, where he was crowned by Artaud, Arch- 
bishop of Rheims. 

To discharge his obligations to the Duke of France, and to 
secure the fidelity of that powerful nobleman, he appointed him 
minister, and committed to his hands the reins of government. 
The Duke of Burgundy had presumed on an infant reign to dis- 
turb the tranquillity of the kingdom, and to seize the city of Lan- 
gres. The insult was resented by the Duke of France, who, at the 
head of a powerful army, penetrated into Burgundy, and com- 
pelled the brother of Rodolph to purchase an ignominious peace, 
by the cession of a great part of that fertile duchy. But Louis 
soon became tired of remaining under the tution of this ambitious 
subject, who wished to keep him constantly at Paris, where he 
was sole master. 

The young king had privately secured the Duke of Normandy, 
and the Counts of Flanders, Vermandois, and Poictiers, who, 
jealous of the minister's power, cheerfully united in order to 
release him from the state of captivity in which he was held. 

He accordingly withdrew to Laon, where he was met by his 
mother Egiva. The duke, more astonished than alarmed at this 
circumstance, only sought to increase his power by the influence 
of fear. He found means to gain over the inconstant and perfidi- 
ous Herbert, who had sufficient influence to make the Normans 
forsake the interest of the king. 



116 LOUIS THE FOURTH. 

They were joined by Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine, and Otho, 
King of Germany. As soon as the season wonld permit, the 
confederated princes began their march towards those parts where 
the king's authority was most acknowledged. Louis advanced 
to meet them, not with a powerful army, but with a band of 
bishops, whose spiritual weapons were exerted with greater suc- 
cess than the temporal swords and pikes of the troops. These 
formidable prelates sent to inform the Duke of Normandy and the 
Count of Vermandois, that they should excommunicate both of 
them — the first, for having burned some towns in Flanders ; and 
the last, for unjustly retaining certain possessions belonging to the 
abbey of Saint Khemi, at Rheims. This extraordinary interfer- 
ence of the ecclesiastical power, and the ejETect it produced, are 
strongly characteristic of the spirit of the times. 

The rebels, alarmed at their threats, remained in suspense. 
The laws of honor, ever sacred ; the obligation of an oath, the 
firmest bond of society; the love of justice ; a regard for their 
duty — all these potent considerations had proved insufiicient to 
deter them from taking up arms against their sovereign — while 
the fear of excommunication, the motives for which were pro- 
bably unjust, checked in a moment the uplifted arm of rebellion. 

Prince Hugh, for that was the title he assumed, observing the 
indecision of his associates, proposed an accommodation; and a 
truce was accordingly agreed on. Louis employed this interval 
of tranquillity in securing the kingdom of Lorraine, whose in- 
habitants invited him to reign over them. 

While he advanced to Verdun, an English fleet appeared on 
the coast of Flanders, in order to protect those maritime towns oi" 
Lorraine which had declared for the king. The first offensive 
and defensive treaty between France and England was concluded 
during this reign; till when, but Httle intercourse, except such as 
was merely commercial, had subsisted between the two king- 
doms. William, Duke of Normandy, surnamed Long Sword, 
had gready contributed to the restoration of tranquillity ; but that 
wise prince did not live long to enjoy the salutary effects of his 



LOUIS THE FOURTH. 117 

interference, being assassinated at an interview with Arnoul, 
Count of Flanders, on the river Somme. He left an infant son 
named Richard, whom Louis took under his protection, and 
conducted to Laon, where he kept him in close confinement. 

Richard, however, was preserved from the evil intentions of 
Louis, by the vigilance of his governor, Osman, who, in the dis- 
guise of a groom, escaped with his pupil, concealed in a truss 
of hay, and, mounting him on a fleet horse, conveyed him in 
safety to the friendly castle of Bernard, Count of Senlis. Still, 
hostilities continued with unabated ardor, though without any 
other success than the desolation of fertile provinces. But Hugh's 
treachery so far prevailed, that the crown was within his grasp, 
and he was strenuously urged to seize it by his numerous par- 
tisans. Louis, in this dilemma, was reduced to the dangerous 
and degrading necessity of having recourse to the authority of the 
church. 

He repaired to the council of Ingelheim, which had been con- 
vened by the Pope, where he heard the Pope's legate read aloud 
the instructions he had received from his master, who delegated 
to himself the power of crowning and deposing sovereigns. The 
French monarch demanded justice for the daring attempts of an 
arbitrary subject who had usurped his authority, and left him but 
the empty title of king. The fathers, moved by his situation, 
threatened to excommunicate his rebellious vassal, unless he in- 
stantly appeared before the council and justified his conduct. 
Hugh, refusing to comply with the citation, the sentence of ex- 
communication was issued against him that same year, by the 
council of Treves, and afterwards confirmed at Rome. Hugh, 
alarmed for the consequences of this proceeding, which, though 
he despised it himself, he knew had great influence on the minds 
of the people, consented to an accommodation with Louis, to 
whom he restored the castle of Laon, and whom he acknowledged 
for his sovereign. But still he cherished a secret enmity, which 
lasted till the death of that prince, who perished by a singular 
accident. 



118 LOUIS THE FOURTH. 

One of the sons of Louis having died at Laon, he determined 
in future to reside at Rheims. As he approached that city, he saw 
a wolf, which he immediately followed on full gallop, when his 
horse stumbled and threw him. The injury proved fatal. Being 
carried to the archbishop's palace, he there expired in the thirty- 
third year of his age, and the eighteenth of his reign. He was 
interred in the church of Saint Remi. Louis was possessed of 
many good qualities : his courage was undaunted, and his politi- 
cal talents were far from contemptible. 

The misfortunes of his reign proceeded chiefly from a facility 
of disposition, which laid him open to deceit — a defect, not un- 
common in virtuous minds, though seldom to be found in those 
of a contrary description. 

Louis had, by his Queen Gerberge, five sons ; two only sur- 
vived him, Lothaire, who succeeded to the crown, and Charles, 
who was unjustly excluded from the throne of his ancestors. 
Lothaire was only in his fourteenth year, and Charles but a year 
old, at the decease of their father. 

Whatever was the cause of the exclusion of Charles, this ex- 
ample, which experience has proved to be so highly beneficial, 
has since become a custom, sanctioned by the positive laws of 
the realm. 



LOTHAIRE. 



A. D. 954.] Hugh, still Duke of France, and thereby guar- 
dian to the young prince, might easily have placed the diadem 
on his own brow ; but afraid to assume a title which could not 
fail to ensure him the enmity and resentment of the nobles, he 
chose to confer the regal dignity on the lawful heir, and Lothaire 
was accordingly crowned at Rheims. Still, that imperious 
nobleman preserved his extensive authority; and, in addition to 
the dignities he already possessed, he now acquired the duchy 
of Aquitaine, wliich was taken from the family of the Counts of 
Poictiers, in order to gratify his ambition. Such was the degree 
of grandeur to which Hugh had attained, when he expired at 
Dourdan", little regretted by the king, on whose prerogatives he 
infringed, though greatly lamented by his numerous friends. It 
is said of him that he reigned twenty years without being a king. 
The reign of Lothaire is marked by no event of importance. 

His authority being almost confined to Paris and its environs, 
he was long a quiet spectator of the wars between his powerful 
vassals. He made an unsuccessful attempt on Aquitaine ; and, 
after seeking in vain to gain possession of the person of Richard, 
Duke of Normandy, he was at length compelled to secure that 
duchy to him and his heirs. In Flanders, his efforts were more 
fortunate ; he reduced Arras, Douay, and several other strong 
places, and obliged Count Baldwin the Third to sue for peace 
and mercy. 

On his return from this expedition, he concluded, at Cologne, 
a treaty of marriage with the Princess Emma, daughter of Lo- 
thaire, King of Italy. The nuptials were celebrated some 



]20 LOTHAIRE. 

months after, and were succeeded by a perfect calm in the empire, 
which lasted several years ; and which alone sufficed to prove 
the great capacity of a monarch, who, possessed of only a few 
towns, and a very small army, was able to repress the ambitious 
attempts of his nobles, and keep within due bounds those haughty 
vassals who had so long preserved a state of independence. 

But the vigorous exertions of Lothaire were productive of no 
solid advantage. He reduced all the towns of Lorraine, but was 
unable to keep them, not having sufficient troops to supply 
them with garrisons. Besides, circumstances were unfavorable to 
long expeditions ; as the vassals were only obliged to keep the field 
for a certain time. Before he dismissed his nobles, he repaired 
to Compeigne, where he associated his son Louis, a boy of twelve 
years old, with him in the empire. A peace was at length con- 
cluded between Lothaire and Otho, to whom he ceded the king- 
dom of Lorraine, on condition that he should hold it as a fief of 
the crown of France. 

Notwithstanding this treaty, he soon after made an irruption 
into that devoted country, where he committed great devastations, 
and took the town of Verdun. This was the last memorable 
exploit of his reign. He died the following year at Rheims, in 
the forty-fifth year of his age, and the thirty-second of his reign. 

He was buried in the church of Saint Remi, where his tomb 
may still be seen. Lothaire was distinguished for his courage, 
activity and vigilance; his projects were well concerted, and his 
actions were generally marked by wisdom, spirit and perse- 
verance. 



LOUIS THE FIFTH. 



A. D. 986.] Louis, on his accession to the throne, neither 
possessed the good qualities of his father nor the esteem of his 
people. The contempt to which his restless and turbulent dispo- 
sition had given rise, would have excluded him from the succes- 
sion, but for the interposition of Hugh Capet, who took him 
under his protection. To this prince was the care of the king's 
person confided, while the regency of the kingdom devolved on 
the queen-dowager. But Emma being accused of improprieties 
with Adalberon, Bishop of Laon, was soon driven from her station 
with ignominy and disgrace. 

An army of Germans was at this time preparing to march into 
France, when the death of the young monarch, in the twenty-first 
year of his age, gave a new turn to affairs. He was buried in 
the church of St. Corneille, at Compeigne, where he was crowned. 
Historians of those days affirm that his death was owing to poison, 
administered either at the instigation of his mother, whom he had 
persecuted with great cruelty, or else by his wife Blanche, to 
whom he was an object of aversion. By his will Louis be- 
queathed his kingdom to Hugh Capet, to the exclusion of his 
uncle Charles. With the death of this prince ends theCarlovin- 
gian race. As he died without children, Charles, Duke of Lower 
Lorraine, was the lawful heir to the throne ; but he had alienated 
the affections of the French by becoming a vassal of the German 
crown. Li consequence of this conduct Hugh Capet took pos- 
session of the throne in accordance with the will of the deceased 
monarch. The illustrious race of the Carlovingians had filled 
the throne of France for two hundred and thirty-six years. It 



122 LOUIS THE FIFTH. 

had been divided into three branches, which reigned over three 
separate kingdoms, Italy, Germany and France. It is remarkable, 
that the last monarch of each branch was named Louis. The 
kings of this line had seldom any residence ; but were constantly 
traveling about on horseback, accompanied by their wives. 

The fall of the Carlovingian race may chiefly be ascribed to 
the division of the empire into a number of independent states. 
United under one head, the very dread of its power would have 
maintained its importance; but, divided into small portions, it 
became impotent, and sunk into a state of insignificance. We 
have seen as many as five princes at a time of the blood of Char- 
lemagne, wearing the crown. But what princes ? — Natural sons, 
ambitious brothers and bad parents, who, intent on mutual destruc- 
tion, taught their subjects to infringe on the sovereign authority, 
which was too feeble to repress their rebellious attempts. Hence 
the encroachments of the sovereign pontiffs, who, considering 
themselves as entitled to dispose of an empire of which at first 
they were but subjects, extended an authority merely spiritual 
over all temporal concerns. Hence, too, that enormous authority 
assumed by the prelates, who, after dethroning a parent at the 
solicitation of a child, claimed the right of electing, confirming, 
or deposing their masters. Swayed by ambition, they were bet- 
ter calculated to shine in the field than the pulpit; contemptible 
from their ignorance — scarcely able to read, much less to write — 
yet formidable, as well from their spiritual thunders, as from the 
temporal authority they had usurped over the dioceses and epis- 
copal towns. This gave rise to those principalities, almost inde- 
pendent, which the monks erected in countries where, a few years 
before, they had been employed in the cultivation of a small por- 
tion of land, the gift of liberal piety. 



CAPETIAN RACE. 



HUGH CAPET. 



A. D. 987.] In order to convey a just idea of the situation of 
the kingdom, at this period, it will be necessary to take a cursory 
view of its various divisions, on the accession of Hugh Capet to 
the throne. Flanders, comprehending all that country which lies 
between the Scheld, the Sea, and the Somme, was then governed 
by Arnoul, the second of his name. 

The house of Vermandois was equally ancient and powerful. 
It derived its origin from Bernard, King of Italy, and possessed, 
besides the county of Senlis, and several districts in the isle of 
France, a great part of Picardy, all Brie, and nearly the whole of 
Champagne. Burgundy had also its dukes ; and, so early as the 
time of Charles the Simple, it was governed by Richard the Just- 
iciary, with almost sovereign power. Under Louis the Fourth, it 
passed into the family of Hugh, Duke of France. At this time 
it was enjoyed by Henry, on condition of his doing homage to 
his brother Hugh Capet. 

The duchy of France comprehended, besides its extensive 
domains in Picardy and Champagne, the city and county of 
Paris, the Orleannois, the Chartrain, Perche, the county of Blois, 
Touraine, Anjou, and Maine. This vast fief rendered the kings 
of France more powerful than any of their sovereign neighbors. 
Normandy and Brittany had been ceded to Rolla the Dane ; the 
former as an independent state, the second as a fief to the crown. 



HUGH CAPET. 

They were at present governed by Richard, brother-in-law to 
Hugh Capet. Aquitaine would indisputably have been one of 
ihe most considerable fiefs in the kingdom, had it been united 
under one chief. 

On reading the ancient authors, we find, tliat formerly none 
but proper names were used. Under the second race of kings, an 
epithet was added, as a more evident mark of distinction ; and 
this was either taken from the dignity or strength of the person, 
from his complexion, or from some personal quality. 

Hence those names that so frequently occur in history, of Hugh 
the Abbot ^ Robert the Strong; Hugh the White-, Hugh Capet. 
The epithet given to this last prince is said to .be derived from the 
Latin word Capito, which literally means a large head, and figu- 
ratively a sensible man. Some writers affirm that he was thus 
named from a kind of hat which he first introduced. The nobles 
took theirs from their fiefs or lordships. The citizen his, either 
from the place of his birth, as Le Picard, Le Normand ; or from 
his profession, as Le Charron (the wheelwright) ; Xe Meusnier 
(the miller); or else from taunting appellations bestowed on him 
by his comrades, as Le roi (the king); VEveque (the bishop); 
or lastly, from some natural defect, as Le camus (flat-nosed) ; 
Bossu (hump-backed). 

Such was the state of France at the time when the sceptre was 
transferred from the family of Charlemagne to the illustrious 
house which now retains it. In the present situation of the em- 
pire, both courage and address were requisite to remove those 
impediments which barred the approach of Hugh Capet to the 
throne. 

When the minds of the people were thus prepared, Hugh, hav- 
ing previously given orders to his principal vassals to be ready to 
assist him in case of necessity, found himself in a situation to 
assume the title of king, as soon as Louis was dead. 

Advancing to Rheims with a considerable number of troops, 
he was there anointed and crowned King of France by Arch- 
bishop Adalberon. Hugh, conscious that his title was defective, 



HUGH CAPET. 125 

hastened to take every step which he thought could confirm his 
authority. 

With this view he convened a parhament a few months subse- 
quent to his coronation, in the city of Orleans, out of the reach 
of his rival, and in the midst of his own friends and dependents. 
There, by the unanimous advice of the assembly, his only son 
Robert was associated with him in the government, and was ac- 
cordingly crowned by Seguin, Archbishop of Sens. But the new 
monarchs were not suffered long to enjoy in tranquillity the do- 
minions they had thus acquired. 

Charles armed in Lower Lorraine, and with him Arnoul, Count 
of Flanders, and Herbert, Count of Vermandois, who, being both 
descended from Charlemagne, determined to support the preten- 
tions of the lawful heir. But unfortunately the first died at this 
critical conjuncture ; and the second, who was father-in-law to 
Charles, was so much exposed to the vengeance of the two kings 
that he was afraid to declare himself openly. Charles, however, 
commenced the campaign ; and with a powerful army, laid siege 
to Laon. 

Hugh was sensibly afilicted at the news of the capture of Laon ; 
of the consequence of which, at the commencement of his reign, 
he was fully aware. As no time was to be lost, he assembled his 
vassals, and advanced towards the enemy ; but the prince defended 
himself with heroic courage ; and, making a judicious sally on 
the besiegers, he burnt their quarters, put numbers of them to the 
sword, and obtained so complete a victory, that the whole army 
was put to flight, and Hugh with difficulty escaped the carnage. 

Hugh immediately took measures for preventing the progress 
of this spirit of discontent, and, marching to Poictiers, he formed 
the siege of that city. But here, as at Laon, he was equally un- 
successful; being in want of provisions he was compelled to retire, 
without carrying his purposes. He accordingly made another 
attack on Laon, which, by the treachery of a prelate, proved fatal 
to his rival. Ascelin, the prelate above alluded to, a favorite of 
Charles and depository of his secrets, had long maintained an 



126 HUGH CAPET. 

epistolary correspondence with Hugh, whom he informed of 
everything that passed in the councils of his master ; and par- 
ticularly apprized him that the blind security which prevailed in 
the city of Laon would render it an easy conquest. 

Hugh gratefully accepted the invitation; and the king was 
admitted by the perfidious prelate into the palace of his benefactor, 
in the night of Holy Thursday, when he was employed in the 
devotions appropriate to the day; and Charles and his family 
were immediately conducted to Senlis, and from thence to the 
tower of Orleans, where that prince, who was worthy of a better 
fate, died after a captivity of two years. Charles left four chil- 
dren : Otho, who succeeded him in the Duchy of Lorraine, and 
who died without heirs ; Louis, who also died without children 
before his brother, and two daughters. 

A mistaken principle of delicacy, founded on respect to the 
reigning family, has induced the generality of the French histo- 
rians to sink the usurpation of Hugh Capet, and to exaggerate 
his virtues ; as if the former would invalidate the title, or the 
latter enhance the reputation of his descendants. Even the Abbe 
Velly, whose spirit and good sense mostly rise superior to the 
little arts of adulation, and lead him to exert the dignified privilege 
of an historian, to enforce truth without regard to rank, has, in 
this instance, condescended to sanction, by his. authority, the gene- 
ral prejudic^e. — Though he scorns to deviate from veracity, yet he 
has deigned to palliate a fact, by observing — that "in that age, 
Hugh W3,s, perT^hps, considered as an usurper." — That his acces- 
sion to the throne of France was stamped with the most glaring 
and indelible marks of usurpation, no ome can deny. — To the 
crown he could have no possible claims by descent — and with 
regard to election, he dissolved, by force, that parliament which 
had met for tile purpose of conferring it on the lawful heir. From 
the jpomejft he associated his son with the regal authority, he ab- 
stained 'himself iTom the use of the ensigns of royalty; and, as a 
H^bdern.wiitef has justly observed, if some praise be due to the 
ptjinc&» Q^ mind which scorned the pageantry of power, more 

ml 





D: /,('!■„, .s/n-.. 



ROBERT. 127 

will always be ascribed to the clemency of a prince who trans- 
ferred to his family a crown unstained with blood, and who, in 
an age of violence, preserved the reputation of unblemished hu- 
manity. 



ROBEET. 



A. D. 996.] Robert, on the death of his father, had just en- 
tered his twenty-seventh year. As his subjects were already 
accustomed to see him hold the reins of government, they ac- 
knowledged him for their sovereign without opposition or mur- 
mur. 

But though the commencement of his reign was, by this means, 
exempt from domestic commotions, his happiness was interrupted 
by the intrigues of the sovereign pontiff. This prelate, in order 
to revenge an indignity which he considered had been offered to 
Archbishop Arnoul, and as a mark of his displeasure, evinced a 
disposition to annul the marriage of Robert with Bertha, widow 
of Eudes, Count of Chartres and Blois, and daughter of Conrad, 
King of Burgundy. His pretext was, that Robert had stood god- 
father to a child of that princess ; and that he was her cousin in 
the fourth degree — two impediments to a legal marriage, which a 
dispensation alone could remove. Robert, who was extremely 
fond of his wife, took every means to prevent a separation, in 
which his love and honor were interested. He thought by re- 
storing Arnoul to his diocese, from which he had been deposed, 
a confirmation of that union in which his happiness was centred 
might be more easily obtained from the Pope ; but this had no 



128 ROBERT. 

effect on Gregory the Fifth, who was the creature of the Empe- 
ror Otho the Third, to whom he was related, and was wholly 
swayed by that monarch, and by Gerbert, who were both ene- 
mies to the reigning family. This virtuous pontiff had been 
expelled from his church by Crescens, Consul of Rome, who 
caused John the Sixteenth, a Greek monk named Philagathes, 
to be elected in his place ; but Gregory was no sooner restored 
to his dignity than, after ordering the eyes of his competitor to 
be put out, and his nose and tongue to be cut off, he assembled 
a council, in which he annulled the marriage of the French mo- 
narch. 

Robert, enraged at his insolence, refused to submit to a sen- 
tence which he justly regarded as an attack upon the majesty of 
the throne. Gregory, however, persisted, and by an infamous 
abuse of power, excommunicated the king, and laid the kingdom 
under an interdict ; by which means the celebration of Divine 
service was stopped throughout the realm, the administration of 
the sacrament suspended, and the burial of the dead in conse- 
crated ground forbidden. This was the first instance of such a 
sentence being enforced in France ; and the nation was so alarmed, 
and so blinded by a degrading spirit of superstition, that the mo- 
narch was abandoned by his courtiers, and even by his domes- 
tics. The alarm of the people, the defection of the nobles, and 
the well-founded dread of a general revolt, at length compelled 
the king to submit, and to dismiss his wife, who still preserved, 
notwithstanding, the title of queen. After their separation, Ro- 
bert married Constance, daughter of William, Count of Pro- 
vence, a woman of extraordinary beauty, but whose personal 
charms concealed a mind polluted by pride, vanity and caprice. 

The internal tranquillity of the kingdom was at this time inter- 
rupted by Eudes, the second Count of Champagne, a son of 
Bertha, by her first husband. 

This ambitious prince, desirous to open a communication be- 
tween the Counts of Chartres, and La Brie, by securing a 
passage over the Seine, cast his eyes on Melun, which Hugh 



ROBERT. 129 

Capet had given to Count Bouchard. This nobleman kept but 
a small garrison in the place, under the command of a viscount, 
named Gautier, who had a pretty and intriguing wife. Eudes 
feigned a violent passion for this lady; and being a handsome 
young man, his suit was successful. By her means he bribed the 
husband to deliver the town into his hands. 

Bouchard complained to Robert, and in a few" days Melun 
was retaken, Eudes found means to escape, and Gautier and his 
wife arrested, and hung on a mountain in sight of the town. 
This was the only event of importance, with the exception of his 
excommunication, that occurred during the first fourteen years of 
Robert's reign. Robert now resolved, with the consent of his 
ministers, to associate with the throne his eldest son Hugh, now 
in his eighteenth year. The ceremony of his coronation was 
performed at Compeigne, in the year 1007. In the fourth year 
of his association with his father, Hugh secretly withdrew 
from court; and, being joined by several of the young nobility, 
erected the standard of revolt. His motive for this act was the 
pride and severity of his mother, who obstinately refused to 
establish his household, or to let him have any share in the gov- 
ernment to which he had been formally associated. 

Fortunately the insurrection was speedily quelled; and Hugh 
returning to his duty, was pardoned by his father, and admitted 
to a participation of his throne and authority. But in a short 
time after this, Hugh was carried off by a fever in the flower of 
his youth. Robert now associated his next son, Henry, with the 
dignity which he had imparted to his deceased brother ; but the 
justice of this nomination was opposed with indecent warmth and 
determined obstinacy by Constance ; and her partiality for her 
younger son, Robert, agitated the court with all the fury of con- 
tending factions. Yet neither the secret arts of intrigue, nor the 
open violence of the ofl'ended queen, could subdue the inflexible 
integrity of her husband. The remainder of this reign, during 
which the kingdom enjoyed more years of peace and prosperity 
than it had known for some centuries, was employed by Robert 
9 



J 30 HENRY THE FIRST. 

in the erection of pious edifices, in reforming the manners of the 
clergy, and in other works of devotion, private and practical. In 
the year 1031, this virtuous monarch was seized at Melun, with 
a violent disorder, which terminated his life in the sixty-first year 
of his age, and forty-fifth of his reign. 

At the decease of this pious monarch, the French in heart ex- 
claimed, " We have lost a father, who governed us in peace, be- 
neath whose authority we dwelt in security ; who suffered not 
in others that oppression which he himself disdained ; who com- 
manded our afiections, and banished our fears." 



HENRY THE FIRST. 



A. D. 1031.] Though Henry had the choice of his father, 
and the suffrages of a majority of the nobles to secure and con- 
firm his succession, yet Constance, to whom he was an object of 
aversion, had neither lost the desire nor the hope of effecting his 
deposition from that throne to which he had acceded in spite of 
her machinations. 

Baldwin, Count of Flanders, and Eudes, Count of Champagne, 
entered into her views; and, being joined by many noblemen of 
France and Burgundy, supplied her with forces for the execution 
of her plans. 

Dammartin, Senlis, Melun, Sens, Poissy, Coucy, Puiset and 
several other fortresses declared in her favor, and hoisted the 
standard of revolt. These were places of great strength in those 
days, and their importance was considerably increased by their 
vicinity to the capital, which waited for the event of the contest 



HENRY THE FIRST. 131 

before it would come to a decision. Henry, astonished, and 
incapable of resisting the torrent, left Paris, and escaped with 
only eleven faithful followers into Normandy ; and deserted by 
his subjects, threw himself on the generous friendship of Robert, 
duke of that province. That prince received him with all pos- 
sible honor, supplied him with a powerful army, and sent orders 
to his uncle. Count Mauger, who commanded Corbeil, to declare 
war against the insurgents, and lay waste their possessions with 
fire and sword. Similar orders were likewise issued to all the 
governors of the frontier towns. 

It was a maxim of the duke to show no quarter to rebels ; 
to which severity he was probably indebted for the name he ac- 
quired of Robert the Devil. 

The king fixed his camp before the walls of Corbeil, where he 
was joined by a great number of his vassals, accompanied by a 
formidable body of troops. He then proceeded to Poissy, which 
he retook ; he next reduced Puiset, and thrice defeated the Count 
of Champagne, M^ho escaped with difficulty the pursuit of the 
victor. This vigorous conduct disconcerted the projects of the 
queen dowager and her partisans, who were compelled to ac- 
knowledge that the young monarch had been grossly misrepre- 
sented to them. But Constance, ever implacable in her hatred, 
refused to listen to any proposals for an accommodation. At 
last finding herself forsaken by her friends and allies, she was 
reluctantly persuaded to enter into a secret treaty with the king. 
Fortunately she had no time to excite fresh intrigues, as she died 
the following year, at Melun, and was interred at Saint Denis, 
by the side of a husband whose repose she had incessantly dis- 
turbed. The submission of the queen was followed by that of 
Prince Robert. Henry not only pardoned him, but generously 
assigned him the Duchy of Burgundy, the investiture of which he 
himself had received from the king his father. Henry had now 
enjoyed a tranquil reign of twenty-seven years. Finding his con- 
stitution visibly impaired, though more from infirmities than from 
age, he thought it necessary to provide for the safety of the king- 



132 HENRY THE FIRST, 

dom by the association of his son Philip, a young prince only in 
his eighth year, with the throne. With this view he convened a 
council at Rheims. The king, having reminded the assembly of 
the services he had rendered the kingdom, requested each one to 
acknowledge his eldest son Philip for his successor, and to take 
an oath of fidelity to him. The whole assembly were unani- 
mous in their compliance, and the young prince was immediately 
crowned by the Archbishop of Rheims. Henry did not long 
survive the coronation of his son. A portion of medicine, im- 
properly administered, put an end to his existence at Vitrie in 
Brie, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and the thirtieth of his 
reign. He was interred at Saint Denis. He was a warlike prince, 
of heroic valor and exemplary piety. A friend to virtue, merit 
was the best recommendation to his esteem ; and, being endued 
with a manly spirit, he knew how to make his authority re- 
spected. 

He left two sons living at his decease : Philip, who succeeded 
him to the throne, and Hugh, who afterwards became Count of 
Vermandois. 



PHILIP THE FIEST. 



A. D. 1060.] Philip being in the seventh year of his age 
when his father died, Baldwin, Count of Flanders, a wise prince, 
highly renowned for his courage and resolution, was appointed 
regent of the kingdom, with the title of Marquis of France. The 
event demonstrated the wisdom of the choice. The marquis 
discharged the duties of his responsible office with punctuality 
and honor; he took care that his pupil should have a proper 
education, and governed his kingdom with great prudence. 

The first years of the minority of Philip were disturbed by a 
revolt of the Gascons, who refused to acknowledge the authority 
of the regent. But the vigor and prudence displayed by Baldwin 
in reducing the rebels to submission, not only gave new lustre to 
his reputation, but secured him universal obedience, the more 
durable as it was founded on esteem. 

But, notwithstanding the attention of Baldwin to the interests 
of the king, and the general welfare of the nation, his administra- 
tion has not totally escaped censure. He has been accused of 
neglect, in suffering so dangerous a neighbor as the Duke of 
Normandy to extend the limits of his dominions, and to achieve 
the important Conquest of England. It was scarcely possible, 
however, that Baldwin could foresee the fatal consequences of 
this event; nor do we think that he could have been justified in 
exposing the nation to the inevitable dangers of war, by an at- 
tempt to prevent the Norman prince from acquiring a new king- 
dom, which it was natural to suppose would render him less 
anxious to extend his native dominions. 

Be that as it may, the conquest of England at this time was 



134 PHILIP THE FIRST. 

followed by a series of bloody and destructive contests in France, 
which always contributed to exhaust, and frequently threatened 
to subvert the monarchy. From this conquest, the wars and 
negotiations of the French and English have been so indissolubly 
blended, as to form one great and complicated system of politics. 
WilUam having collected his fleet of three thousand vessels, and 
an army of sixty thousand men, four hundred and fifty of whom 
were of the first rank in the empire, set sail from the har- 
bor of Saint Valori : and after a fortunate passage, arrived at 
Pevensey, in Sussex, when the army was disembarked without 
the smallest opposition. After publishing a manifesto, as false 
as his claims were frivolous, he advanced to Hastings, where he 
was met by the English army under the command of Harold and 
his valiant brothers. The battle was fought on the fourteenth of 
October, 1066, and, after an obstinate and bloody conflict, Wil- 
liam, by an artifice, secured that victory which decided the fate of 
England. 

The death of Harold left this foreign usurper in possession of 
the field and of the kingdom, — and the sceptre of Britain, which 
had been swayed by Anglo-Saxons for more than six hundred 
years, was now transferred to the hand of a Norman. 

The power which William acquired by this new conquest 
alTorded just subject of alarm to all the neighboring princes, who 
repented, when too late, their weakness in not opposing his eflforts. 
King Philip, young as he was, conceived that a crowned vassal 
was an object of apprehension ; and he loudly censured the regent, 
who had assisted the Duke of Normandy with money and troops. 
But Baldwin did not long survive this event; his death was a 
great loss to the kingdom, which he governed with consummate 
prudence ; and a still greater to the youthful monarch, who now 
became his own master at an age when the understanding is 
generally weak and the passions are strong. Philip was then 
but fifteen ; and, according to the ancient law of the realm, the 
king was not of age till he was twenty-one. It does not appear, 
however, that any other regent was named. The first expedition 



PHILIP THE FIRST. 135 

of the new monarch was into Flanders, whither respect for the 
memory of Baldwin induced him to carry his arms. 

The tranquillity which prevailed in France afforded leisure to 
Philip to pursue those pleasures to which he was naturally ad- 
dicted; unfortunately they were not calculated to amuse, but to 
enervate the mind. 

The queen had by this time lost her powers of pleasing ; and the 
king, though he had several children by her, was resolved to pro- 
cure a divorce. A distant and doubtful degree of consanguinity 
afforded the pretence, and the unhappy princess, banished to 
Montreuil, expired of a broken heart. 

The King of France next demanded in marriage, Emma, the 
daughter of Count Roger, brother to Robert Guischard, Duke of 
Sicily. The lady, richly adorned with jewels, and liberally por- 
tioned, was escorted to the French court, but, to the disgrace of 
Philip, does the historian record, Emma was dismissed, and her 
fortune retained. 

While Philip passed his hours in the alternate enjoyments of 
love and wine, his kingdom was doomed, by her miseries, to atone 
for the vices of her sovereign. 

The barons once more assumed the tone of independence. 
The scenes of anarchy and confusion from which France had 
been rescued by the prudence of Hugh Capet and his successors, 
were again presented in every province, and the dignity of the 
crown, which had been degraded by the follies of the father, was 
restored by the virtues of the son. From their fortified castles 
the nobles issued forth like a band of plunderers, and committed 
the most daring depredations on the public roads, laying all pas- 
sengers, without discrimination of age, sex or station, under a 
cruel contribution. It was no longer possible to travel, but in 
caravans ; and even the king himself did not dare to pass from 
Paris to Etampes without a strong guard. The capital was in 
a manner blockaded by seven or eight small towns, the lords of 
which kept regular bodies of troops that scoured the surrounding 
country ; and these tyrants became more formidable from their 



136 PHILIP THE FIRST. 

union, which was closely cemented by the ties of blood, and the 
more powerful bonds of interest. Philip deemed it necessary to 
make every exertion for repressing disorders which threatened the 
kingdom with destruction. 

With a small, but well-disciplined force, he continually kept 
the field, and overawed the nobles who had disdained his autho- 
rity. He razed their castles, redressed the injuries of those they 
had wronged, and compelled them to relinquish the lands which 
they had taken from the church. The banks of the Seine and 
the Loire alternately attested his indefatigable zeal ; and the pre- 
sumption of a haughty nobility was repressed and chastised by a 
cautious, yet enterprising prince. 

The Crusades, or expeditions formed for the purpose of res- 
cuing the Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels, was com- 
menced about this time ; an event that seemed to rouse Europe 
from the lethargy in which it had long been sunk, and which 
tended to introduce a change both in government and manners. 

During these transactions in the east, Philip was busily em- 
ployed in extending his dominions. 

Profiting by the superstitious rage of the times, he united 
several large fiefs to the crown, and, among others, the county 
or lordship of Bourges, which Herpin sold to him for the pur- 
pose of procuring money to defray his expenses to the Holy 
Land. 

Philip died at Melun, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and 
the fiftieth of his reign. He was buried, by his own desire, at 
the abbey of Saint Benedict, upon the Loire. Though Philip 
was generally despised by his subjects, and not without reason, 
yet he possessed many good qualities, and excellent endowments. 
He was intrepid in the field, and, when he applied to business, 
not unskillful in the cabinet. His generosity was extensive ; his 
compassion strong ; and the courteous aff'ability of his demean- 
or coinciding with the extraordinary graces of his person, all 
those who had access to him were apt to forget, in the manners 
of the man, the vices of the monarch. Philip was twice mar- 



LOUIS THE SIXTH. I37 

ried : by his first wife Bertha, whom he basely repudiated, he 
had Louis the Sixth, who succeeded him. And by his second 
wife Bertrade, of the illustrious house of Montfort, he had one son 
and two daughters. 



LOUIS THE SIXTH. 



A. D. 1108.] The ceremony of the coronation of Louis was 
performed at Orleans, by Daimbert, Archbishop of Sens, on ac- 
count of a schism which prevailed in the church of Rheims, 
where the princes of the Capetian race (except Robert) had 
hitherto been crowned. 

Rodolph had been elected by the clergy of Rheims, and had 
taken possession of the arch iepis copal dignity, without waiting 
for the consent of Philip, who, in order to punish him for his 
presumption, had nominated another prelate named Gervase. 
Louis refused to be anointed by the first, because, in conformity 
to the decrees of the Popes, and of the council of Clermont, he 
refused to do homage to the king ; nor would he sufi'er the last 
to perform that ceremony, because his authority was not univer- 
sally acknowledged. When Louis had settled this important aff'air, 
he turned his thoughts towards the correction of those internal 
abuses which sprang from the turbulent disposition of the nume- 
rous and powerful vassals of the crown. The royal authority, in- 
deed, was chiefly confined to Paris, Compeigne, Melun, Etampes, 
Orleans, Bourges and some other places of little consequence ; 
and many of the nobles were able to bring a more formidable 
army into the field than the king himself, to whom they paid a 



138 LOUIS THE SIXTH. 

vain and sterile homage, while they exercised a despotic sway 
within their own territories, and assumed almost every mark of 
sovereignty. 

But the skill and courage of Louis were successfully exerted 
in repressing the inroads and curtailing the power of these dan- 
gerous subjects. He reduced numbers of them to submission, 
destroying their castles, and confiscating their possessions. But 
the attention of Louis was soon called to oppose the increasing 
power of a more formidable enemy. This was Henry the First, 
King of England, who had usurped the Duchy of Normandy, to 
the prejudice of his brother Robert, and compelled the Duke of 
Brittany to pay him homage. 

The French perceived, now it was too late, the fault they had 
committed in not opposing the conquests of William the First ; 
and they accordingly took up arms to suppress the dangerous 
encroachments of a power that threatened to destroy their own. 
From this period to the reign of Charles the Seventh, there was a 
continual succession of war and peace between France and Eng- 
land. During that time more than one hundred and twenty 
treaties were concluded, which were all broken almost as soon as 
they were signed. 

About this time Louis married Adelaide, daughter of Humbert, 
Count of Savoy. The amiable qualities of this princess en- 
deared her to the nobility, and her good sense and discretion 
contributed to smooth the rugged path which Louis throughout 
his reign was destined to tread. The relative situation of the 
French and English monarchs, and the contrariety of their in- 
terests, were such, at this period, as to render the preservation of 
tranquillity between them a matter of extreme difficulty. The 
turbulence of their vassals afforded frequent opportunities for 
the open display of that enmity with which they were mutually 
impressed. 

When a French nobleman had any subject for discontent he 
applied for support to Henry ; and if a Norman wished to en- 
courage sedition, in Louis he was sure to find a ready protector. 



LOUIS THE SIXTH. I39 

In this state of mind, the French monarch listened with pleasure 
to the supplicating voice of a young prince, who, having in vain 
attempted to rouse the compassion of other monarchs, now sought 
shelter and support in the court of France. This prince was 
William, the son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, and grandson 
of William the First, whose filial piety implored the humanity 
of Louis to procure the liberty of his father, a prisoner to his 
brother Henry. The King of France did not long hesitate to 
comply with a request, recommended by the powerful motives 
of pity and interest. He advised William to engage the inclina- 
tions of the nobles of Normandy, and particularly to attach to 
his cause the Counts of Flanders and Anjou. The negotiation of 
the young prince was successful, but when the treaty was about 
to be signed by the heads of the confederacy, the Count of Anjou 
refused to confirm his engagement, unless the king would re- 
establish him in the office of grand-seneschal of France, which 
had been hereditary in his family from the reign of Lothaire. 
Preliminaries being now settled, the armies entered Normandy 
in three different points. Louis then sent to demand of the King 
of England the liberty of Robert; and on the refusal being given, 
war was declared. Their first march was to Rouen, where Louis 
sent Henry a challenge to meet him in the field, but this being 
declined, and the town too strong to be taken, they burned the 
suburbs, and then retired. Louis, finding himself unable to 
wrest Normandy from the king by arms, had recourse to the 
spiritual power, and prevailed on Pope Calixtus the Second to 
effect an accommodation between the two monarchs. This was 
successfully accomplished by the pontiff; and Henry, having 
restored tranquillity to his continental dominions, embarked at 
Barfleur on his return to England. One of the finest vessels 
in his fleet, called the White Ship, was allotted to his son. Prince 
William, and his numerous retinue; who, being detained by 
some accident, ordered three casks of wine to be distributed to 
the ship's crew, by which means many of them became intoxi- 
cated ; and the captain himself so far exceeded the bounds of 



T40 LOUIS THE SIXTH. 

temperance, that the vessel struck on a sunken rock, called the 
Catte-razze, with such violence that she started her planks, and 
was overset. The boat was hoisted out, and the prince, with 
some of the nobility, entered it ; others, actuated by a natural im- 
pulse of self-preservation, leaped into it, so that it instantly sunk, 
and all on board perished. 

On this occasion, besides the prince and his natural brother 
Richard, there were lost eighteen ladies of the highest rank, 
one hundred and forty young noblemen of the principal families 
of England and Normandy, with all their attendants, and fifty 
sailors. 

After this tragical event, Henry was determined to return to 
Normandy, in order to suppress a revolt which had taken place 
in that province. In the spring of the following year, the Eng- 
lish monarch had the good fortune to take the leaders of the 
conspiracy by surprise, and to secure their persons. Discou- 
raged by this unlucky accident, all the other barons who had 
joined in the revolt, hastened to return to their allegiance, and to 
make peace with him on the best terms they could procure. 
Still, however, the King of France continued to make the most 
formidable preparations for war, and troops were collecting on 
every side. It is necessary to remark, on this occasion, the dif- 
ference which subsisted, in the times we are now delineating, 
between the forces of the kingdom and those of the king. 
When the sovereign went to war for the promotion of his own 
private interest, he had no more troops than what he could col- 
lect on the immediate domains of the crown; but, when the 
general welfare of the nation was at state, all domestic dissen- 
tions instantly ceased. Every man flew to arms, and every vassal 
marched with a certain number of troops, proportioned to the 
extent and dignity of his fief. Thus the whole empire was in 
arms to meet the usurper of England, who, alarmed at the im- 
mensity of these preparations, repassed the Moselle and the 
Rhine with the utmost precipitation. This gave Louis an op- 
portunity to arrange terms of accommodation. These were ac- 



LOUIS THE SIXTH. 143 

cepted, and peace between the two kingdoms was once more 
restored. Louis, finding now his health failing, followed the 
example of his predecessors, in the association of his son Philip 
with the throne. 

That prince did not long survive his elevation to the regal 
dignity. A fall from his horse proved fatal to the young prince, 
and the favorable expectations of a future reign, which had been 
raised by his early virtues, were blasted by his premature death. 
The loss of Philip was followed by the coronation of his brother 
Louis, who, at the age of twelve years, received the crown from 
the hands of Pope Innocent the Second. 

Louis died at Paris, in the thirtieth year of his reign, and the 
sixtieth of his age. Of Louis the Sixth it had been said, "He 
might have made a better king ; he could not have been a better 
man." 

That he entertained a just sense of the nature and importance 
of the royal dignity, is evident from his last admonition to his 
son, and successor: ^^ Remember, my son,^^ said the expiring 
monarch, " that royalty is a public trust, for the exercise of 
which a rigorous account will be exacted from you, by him who 
has the sole disposal of crowns and sceptres" 



LOUIS THE SEVENTH. 



A. D. 1137.] Louis, who was in Guinne at the death of 
liis father, hastened to Paris, and convened an assembly of the 
prelates and nobles, for repressing that spirit of sedition which 
so frequently manifests itself at the commencement of a reign. 

The kingdom, indeed, had not enjoyed so perfect a calm as 
it now experienced for some time. This was principally owing 
to the fatal divisions which prevailed in Germany and England. 

These cruel disorders, which prevailed in the neighboring 
states, were favorable to the tranquillity of France, which was, 
at this time, agitated only by theological disputes, that were not 
carried to a sufficient height to disturb the national repose. 

These agitations were caused by Abelard, a monk, who was 
promulgating among his pupils and others Trinitarian sentiments 
that were not at this time received. Bernard, Abbot of Clair- 
vaux, in the county of Champagne, accused him of following 
the example of Arius, in making distinctions between the three 
persons of the Trinity ; of imitating Pelagius, in preferring free 
will to grace ; and of agreeing with the Nestorians, in dividing 
the person of Christ. A council was accordingly assembled at 
Sens, for the purpose of taking these charges into consideration, 
at which the king and the Count of Champagne were both pre- 
sent. The Abbot of Clairvaux opened the business of the day, 
and displayed a fund of eloquence that seduced his audience. 
By the applause which he received from the assembly, Abelard 
was convinced that his condemnation would be pronounced. 
The embarrassment occasioned by this idea almost deprived 
him of the use of his faculties ; it did not, however, prevent him 



4.1 



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43 



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'hjk- 4^ 




u:i.o7->u^/>v. 



LOUIS THE SEVENTH. I43 

from thinking of his personal safety, by making an appeal to the 
Pope. The council, therefore, though they proceeded to con- 
demn his doctrine, were prevented from inflicting any punishment 
on him. 

Abelard set out for Rome, in order to pursue his appeal, and 
to justify himself to the sovereign pontiflf ; but the Abbot of Cluni 
prevented him from proceeding, and undertook to reconcile him 
to Bernard. 

Then the face of aflfairs totally changed, and the doctrine of 
Abelard was no longer called in question. He died two years 
after this reconciliation, overwhelmed with infirmities. He was 
doubtless the brightest genius of the times in which he lived. 
His misfortunes were owing to an excess of sensibility, and to the 
splendor of his reputation. His wife Heloise survived him nearly 
twenty years, and, at her death, was interred in the same tomb with 
her husband, at the abbey of Paraclete which she had founded. 

At this time the distress of the Christian warriors in Palestine 
called for immediate assistance from Europe ; and Bernard, who 
had been employed to preach a second crusade, and whose fer- 
vent eloquence had aroused the fanatical zeal of the Germans and 
Flemings, was earnest in his exhortations to Louis to join them. 
Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, on the contrary, exerted his utmost 
efforts to dissuade the king from an enterprise from which there 
was everything to fear and nothing to hope ; and which he might 
effectually assist by a contribution of men and money, while 
his presence was requisite at home to secure the tranquillity of 
his hereditary dominions. Louis, however, after what he termed 
mature deliberation, assumed the cross, and repaired to Palestine. 
A parliament was now assembled at Vezelai, in Burgundy, to 
listen to the eloquence of Bernard, who depicted in glowing colors 
the meritorious piety and the internal rewards which attended 
the holy warfare. 

The king received from his hands a cross, which the pope had 
sent him from Rome ; and his example was followed by the queen 
and a numerous train of nobles, prelates and others. 



144 LOUIS THE SEVENTH. 

Louis placed the reins of government in the hands of Rodolph, 
Count of Vermandois, and of Suger, Abbot of Saint Denis, and 
at the head of two hundred thousand men, traversed the plains of 
Hungary, and encamped under the walls of Constantinople. At 
Nice Louis met Conrad, Emperor of Germany, his rival in the 
pious warfare, returning wounded from a glorious but unfortunate 
combat, in the defiles of Mount Taurus, into which he had been 
betrayed by the perfidy of Manuel, and seeking for some ves- 
sels to carry him to Palestine by sea. The King of France, how- 
ever, unwarned by his misfortunes, pressed forward to the banks 
of the Mander, which he passed in sight of the Turks, whom he 
afterwards attacked in their camp, and defeated with great slaugh- 
ter. The king was retiring from this attack with precipitation, 
when his golden spurs attracted the notice of a band of Saracens, 
who resolved to seize the glittering prize. They accordingly pur- 
sued Louis, who, unable to effect his escape, placed his back against 
a large tree, where he defended himself with such vigor against 
his numerous assailants, that he soon had an opportunity of 
climbing to the top. The Saracens plied him with their arrows, but 
were unable to penetrate his armor ; they next attempted to ascend 
the tree, but the king used his sabre with such skill and success, 
that, intimidated by the opposition they experienced, they at length 
left him in search of other plunder that could be acquired with 
greater facility. 

He then left his post ; and, mounting a stray horse, was lucky 
enough to find the defiles of the mountain, and to attain the camp 
of his vanguard. On the recovery of their sovereign, whom 
they imagined to be killed or taken, a general rejoicing ensued. 

From Antioch, Louis set sail for Jerusalem, where he was 
joined by the Emperor Conrad. Reinforced by troops, they deter- 
mined to form the siege of Damascus ; but that city, strong both 
by art and nature, resisted their efforts, and they were compelled 
to relinquish their attempts with a loss of nearly one-half their 
army. Having, however, given proofs of their sincerity, piety and 



LOUIS THE SEVENTH. 145 

courage, they embarked at a port in Syria to their respective 
dominions. 

The French, in the meantime, bewailed with bitter lamentations 
the misguided zeal of their monarch, and the fatal effects of an 
expedition that had drained the kingdom of its wealth and greatly 
diminished the number of its inhabitants. 

Louis, finding his health declined from the continual agitations 
and revolts he had experienced during his reign, resolved to hasten 
the coronation of his son ; he was disabled, however, from attend- 
ing the ceremony, by a sudden stroke of apoplexy, which an- 
nounced his speedy dissolution. Philip, nevertheless, was crowned 
in the presence of Henry, son to the English monarch, who, as 
Duke of Normandy, bore the royal diadem; of the Count of 
Flanders, who carried the sword of state ; and other great vassals 
and officers of the crown. The coronation of Philip was suc- 
ceeded by his marriage with Isabella, the daughter of Baldwin, 
Count of Hainault. This alliance of the blood of Charlemagne 
with the blood of Hugh Capet, gave the French inexpressible 
pleasure. They still revered the memory of the Carlovingian 
princes, whom they distinguished by the appellation of The Great 
Kings. Louis died at Paris, in the sixtieth year of his age, and 
the forty-fourth of his reign. He was interred in the abbey of 
Barbeau. 



10 



PHILIP THE SECOND. 



A. D. 1181.] From his birth, which established the peaceable 
succession to the crown of France, Philip attained the expressive 
surname of The gift of God. As he advanced in life, his vanity 
was gratified by the appellation conferred on him by his courtiers, 
of Conqueror, and the Magnanimous ; and, after his death, the 
surname of Augustus was added to his other titles. The man- 
agement of affairs was entrusted to Robert Clement, of Mentz, 
to whom the education of Philip had been confided by the late 
king. He is spoken of, by historians, as a man of strict integrity, 
and possessed of every quality that could fit him for a situation 
so arduous and delicate. Great hopes were consequently formed 
of his administration ; but these were speedily destroyed by his 
sudden death. He was succeeded in his office and dignities by 
his brother Gilles Clement; but he too, died in a few months after 
his elevation, and made way for the Cardinal of Champagne, 
brother to the queen dowager, who was appointed to the presi- 
dency of the council, and to the post of prime minister. 

Philip now employed himself in the internal regulation of his 
dominions, and in repressing the formidable enterprises of the 
Duke of Burgundy. 

At this time the joy of the kingdom was considerably height- 
ened by the birth of a prince. The hopes of seeing the blood of 
Charlemagne once more established on the throne of France, 
inspired the people with the most enthusiastic pleasure. The 
Bishop of Tournay performed the ceremony of baptism, and 
gave to the royal infant the name of Louis. Philip found, in the 
birth of an heir, a new cause for esteeming a princess, who had 



PHILIP THE SECOND. 147 

the best title to his affections. — But the rejoicings occasioned by 
this happy event were suddenly interrupted by the reception of 
some dismal intelligence from the Christians in Palestine. 

After the departure of Louis the Seventh from the Holy Land, 
the crusaders experienced a succession of disasters that reduced 
them to the last extremity. 

But the frequent repetition of calamities, which had nearly 
depopulated the western world, and exhausted its treasures, were 
yet insufficient to check the folly of these spiritual knights-errant. 

Philip without loss of time convened an assembly at Paris, at 
which several ordinances were enacted, as well for the purpose 
of providing for the expenses of the war, as for preventing those 
disorders which had occasioned the failure of the crusade. 

Everything was ready for the expedition to Palestine, when 
the flames of war again burst forth in Europe, and induced the 
rival monarchs of France and England to turn those arms against 
each other which had been destined to oppose their mutual 
enemy. 

Philip, jealous of Henry's power, "entered into a private confer- 
ence with young Richard, son of Henry the Second of England, 
who was at this time Duke of Normandy ; and working on his 
ambitious and impatient temper, persuaded him, instead of sup- 
porting and aggrandizing that monarchy which he was one day to 
inherit, to seek present power and independence by disturbing and 
dismembering it. In order to afford a pretext for hostilities be- 
tween the two kings, Richard invaded the territories of Raymond, 
Count of Toulouse, who immediately complained of this violence 
to the King of France, as his superior lord. Philip remonstrated 
with Henry, but received for answer, that Richard had confessed 
to the Archbishop of Dublin, that his enterprise against Raymond 
hlid been undertaken by the approbation of Philip himself, and 
was conducted by his authority. Philip, who ought to have been 
ashamed of such duplicity, by this detection of his perfidy, still 
prosecuted his design, and invaded the provinces of Berry and 



148 PHILIP THE SECOND. 

Auvergiie, under color of revenging the quarrel of the Count of 
Toulouse. 

Henry retaliated by making inroads upon the frontiers of 
France, and burning Dreux. As this war, which destroyed all 
hopes of success in the projected crusade, gave great scandal, the 
two kings held a conference between Trie and Gisors, in order 
to find means of accommodating their differences. But this inter- 
view only served to increase their enmity ; and Philip, to show 
his disgust, ordered a large tree, under which the conferences had 
been usually held, to be cut down; as if he had renounced all 
desire of accommodation, and was determined to carry the war 
to extremities against the King of England. 

But his own vassals refused to serve under him in so vile a 
cause ; and he was obliged to have a second conference with 
Henry, and to offer terms of peace. These terms were such as 
completely opened the eyes of the King of England, and fully 
convinced him of the perfidy of his son, and of his secret alliance 
with Philip, of which he had before only entertained some sus- 
picion. 

The King of France required that Richard should be crowned 
King of England in the lifetime of his father, should be invested 
with alibis continental dominions, and should immediately espouse 
Alice, Philip's sister. Henry had experienced such fatal effects, 
both from the crowning of his eldest son, and from that prince's 
alliance with the royal family of France, that he indignantly 
rejected these terms; and Richard, in consequence of his secret 
agreement with Philip, immediately revolted from him, did ho- 
mage to the King of France for all the dominions which Henry 
held of that crown, and received the investitures, as if he had 
already been the lawful possessor. This unexpected occurrence 
being naturally productive of infinite confusion, the conference 
broke up. Cardinal Albeno, who had been sent by the pope to 
effect a peace between the two monarchs, excommunicated Rich- 
ard, as the chief obstacle to the treaty ; and this prelate dying, the 
sovereign pontiff, who was anxious to accelerate the expedition 



PHILIP THE SECOND. 149 

to Palestine, invested the Cardinal Anagni with the legatine power, 
and gave him instructions to promote a reconciliation ; but the 
unprincipled obstinacy of Richard rendered all conciliatory en- 
deavors ineffectual. Philip also despised the menaces, and in- 
sisted on the non-interference of the legate ; while Richard would 
have committed violence on him, only for the interposition of the 
company. The war was now renewed with additional vigor, and, 
after severat successive defeats, Henry was subdued, and submitted 
to all the rigorous terms so shamefully imposed on him. 

But the mortification which the King of England experienced, 
from being obliged to submit to such humiliating conditions, soon 
put a period to his existence ; he died at the castle of Chinon, 
lamented by his subjects. On the accession of Richard to the 
English throne, Philip sought an interview with him at Nonan- 
court, in which the final arrangements for their voyage to Pales- 
tine were adopted. They swore an eternal friendship to each 
other, promised mutual assistance, and agreed that if one of them 
should die on the voyage, the other should become master of his 
troops and treasures, to be employed for the relief of the Holy 
Land. After these precautions they fixed the general rendezvous 
in the plains of Vezelai, in Burgundy, where they arrived towards 
the end of June. The arrival at Ptolemais of Philip and Richard 
inspired the Christians with new life. Acting in concert, and par- 
taking the glory and danger of every action, they gave strong hopes 
of obtaining a final victory over the infidels. The plan of ope- 
rations which they agreed on was this,; that one day the King of 
France should attack the town, and the English guard the trenches ; 
and the next, the English monarch should conduct the assault, 
and the French undertake to defend the assailants. 

The Saracens reluctantly surrendered after a siege of two days, 
and were compelled to submit to the following conditions. That 
the garrison should be allowed to depart, leaving all their baggage 
behind them ; that Saladin, their emperor, should restore the true 
cross, with two thousand five hundred Christian prisoners of the 
greatest note ; that he should cause to be paid to the two victorious 



150 LOUIS THE EIGHTH. 

monarchs two hundred thousand pieces of gold, called Bysantines, 
for the ransom of the garrison, the whole of which were to be 
detained as hostages till these conditions were performed. Thus 
ended this celebrated siege, which had engaged the attention of 
all Europe and Asia for t\yo years, and had cost the lives of three 
hundred thousand men, besides those of six archbishops, twelve 
bishops, forty earls, and five hundred barons. 

Philip felt his health rapidly declining. He was repairing from 
Normandy to his capital, when he was arrested by death, at the 
town of Mante, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and the forty- 
fourth of his reign. He was interred in the royal vault at Saint 
Denis. 

The eulogy pronounced by historians on the character of Philip, 
is comprehended in a few words, " that though his mind was 
capacious and enterprising, his defects were many, and his virtues 
few." 



LOUIS THE EIGHT 



SURNAMED THE LION. 



A. D. 1223.] The accession of Louis the Eighth, who was 
now in his thirty-sixth year, experienced no kind of opposition. 
Though his father had neglected to associate him with the throne, 
he had left him in possession of an array that was better cal- 
culated to establish his authority than the celebration of a vain 
ceremony. The new monarch was crowned at Rheims by 
William de Joinville, archbishop of that diocese, and the most 



LOUIS THE EIGHTH. 151 

unequivocal proofs of joy and satisfaction were exhibited on the 
occasion, from one extremity of the kingdom to the other. He 
was no sooner seated on the throne than Henry the Third of 
England demanded by a solemn embassy, the restoration of 
Normandy, and of the other provinces which had been wrested 
from his father ; but Louis replied, that those territories had 
been formally confiscated by a sentence of the peers, the validity 
of which he was prepared to defend ; and, as the truce of four 
years was on the point of expiring, he determined on renewing 
the war by an irruption in Poitou. The Pope apprised of his 
intentions, sought to divert him from his purpose ; but the king 
neglected his remonstrances, and, being sensible of his own 
power, resolved to exert it. Accordingly, shortly afterwards he 
entered Poitou with a powerful army, and having subdued all 
the places which the English possessed in Poitou, and received 
the homage of their inhabitants, he returned in triumph to Paris. 

Louis next marched against Avignon, but the inhabitants set 
his threats at defiance, repelled his attacks with the most deter- 
mined valor, and compelled him, after the loss of the bravest of 
his troops, to grant those terms of capitulation which he had at 
first refused. After the reduction of Avignon, the king entered 
Languedoc, and extended his devastations within four leagues 
of Toulouse ; but, the season being too far advanced to form 
the siege of that important place, which Raymond had been care- 
ful to provide with every means of resistance, he resolved to 
return to Paris. On his journey, he was seized at Montpenser, 
with a disorder that put an end to his life, in the fourth year of 
his reign, and the fortieth of his age. He was interred at Saint 
Denis. Of eleven children which Louis had by his wife Blanche 
of Castile, six only survived him : Louis, Robert, John, Alfonso, 
Charles and Isabella. By his will Louis bequeathed all his do- 
minions to his eldest son Louis, except those appanages which 
he intended for his brothers. 

Louis the Eighth possessed the courage, vigilance and activity, 
but not the prudence of his father. 



LOUIS THE NINTH 



COMMONLY CALLED SAINT LOUIS. 



A. D. 1226.] Louis on his death-bed appointed his Queen 
Blanche regent of the kingdom and guardian of the young prince, 
who was crowned at Rheims. The archiepiscopal see, and 
all the nobles and prelates present, took the accustomed oath of 
allegiance to Louis as their sovereign, and to Blanche, as the re- 
gent of the kingdom, during the minority of her son. The regent 
herself is said to have been a woman of extraordinary accom- 
plishments, both mental and personal ; of a spirit undaunted, of 
beauty unrivaled. Determined to chastise the Count of Brittany, 
who had already commenced hostilities, Louis marched into his 
territories, at the head of a powerful army ; and though his van- 
guard was attacked and defeated by the count, he advanced into 
the interior parts of the country, and committed the most dread- 
ful devastations. His turbulent vassal, alarmed at the rapidity of 
his progress, demanded a truce till November, when he engaged, 
if the King of England did not in the interim come in person 
to assist him, to surrender Brittany into the hands of the king. 
This proposal, accompanied by a considerable sum of money, 
was accepted; and Henry, not having appeared within the ap- 
pointed time, the count, at the expiration of the truce, fulfilled his 
engagement. 

The submission of the Count of Brittany, and the vigorous 
conduct v/hich had produced it, kept the other great vassals of the 
crown in awe. 

The king having now attained his one-and-twentieth year. 



LOUIS THE NINTH. 153 

took the reins of government into his own hands ; but though 
Blanche ceased to bear the title of regent, she still maintained 
her former ascendency; and by her acute penetration and prudent 
councils, greatly assisted her son in supporting with dignity and 
ease the burdens of royalty. 

Louis had now begun to form plans for another crusade to the 
Holy Land ; accordingly, he collected his numerous counts and 
vassals, arid with an army of one hundred and thirty thousand 
foot, and nine thousand horse, they embarked at the port of 
Aigues Mortes, in a fleet of one hundred vessels. With favora- 
ble winds they reached the coast of Cyprus, on whose friendly 
shores the troops were disembarked ; and during the severity of 
the winter, their strength was recruited, and their health restored 
by the plenty of that island. Early in the spring, the fleet cast 
anchor at the mouth of the Nile, and after a vigorous resistance, 
the Saracens were at last compelled to relinquish the field to the 
daring warriors of France. 

After one or two successful battles, Louis returned to his na- 
tive land, where he found some confusion caused by a visit from 
the King of England, and which had caused some discontent 
among his nobles. This, however, was soon quelled, and the 
kingdom restored to tranquillity. 

The high reputation which Loui» now deservedly bore for 
justice and integrity, produced an appeal from Henry the Third 
of England, and his discontented barons, who, by mutual consent, 
chose him as a mediator between them. 

This virtuous prince, the only man who, in like circumstances, 
could safely have been entrusted with such an authority by a 
neighboring nation, had never ceased to interpose his good ofiices 
between the English factions. He had exerted his utmost endea- 
vors to accommodate the differences between Henry and the fac- 
tious Earl of Leicester ; but found that the fears and animosities 
on both sides, as well as the ambition of Leicester, were so violent 
as to render all his efl'orts ineffectual. The propositions for ad- 
justment were indignantly rejected by Leicester, who was deter- 



154 LOUIS THE NINTH. 

mined to have recourse to arms, and a most decisive battle was 
fought at Evesham, on the fourth of August, 1265, when the 
royalists proved victorious: Leicester himself, with his eldest son, 
Hugh le Despenser, and about one hundred and sixty knights, and 
many other gentlemen of his party, were slain in the action. On 
the return of Louis to his dominions he found his nobles and 
vassals had been incited by the pope to another crusade against 
the Saracens who had been again awfully oppressing the Chris- 
tians. 

Accordingly, this prince of fanatics made the necessary pre- 
parations, and sailed for Tunis, on the coast of Africa, in order to 
convert Omar, the King of Tunis, to Christianity. There he had to 
encounter an active and formidable foe. The town of Carthage, 
however, was soon in their possession, and Louis resolved to wait 
there till the arrival of his brother before he attacked the city of 
Tunis, which was strongly fortified, and defended by a brave and 
numerous garrison. But the excessive heat of the climate brought on 
a pestilential disorder, which destroyed one-half of the army. The 
king himself at length caught the infection, and, after giving the 
most salutary advice to his vassals, resigned his breath on the 
twenty-fifth of August, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and the 
forty-fourth of his reign. This monarch united to the mean and 
abject superstition of a mofik, all the courage and magnanimity 
of the greatest hero, the justice and integrity of a disinterested 
patriot, and the mildness and humanity of a philosopher. 

The few errors into which he fell, arose principally from an 
excess of religious zeal; and they were so greatly exceeded by 
his numerous virtues, that it would be invidious to dwell on them. 

Philip, the eldest son of Louis the Ninth, succeeded his father 
to the throne. 



/ 





4-7 





M:7^.07-II,.s/,\ 



PHILIP THE THIRD 



SURNAMED THE HARDY, 



A. D. 1270.] The pestilential disease, which had destroyed 
the king, continued to rage with such unabated violence, that 
Philip judged it prudent to return to his dominions with as little 
delay as possible. The King of Tunis having made propositions 
to Philip, he was induced to consent to the following conditions. 
"That the port of Tunis should be open for the reception of 
merchandize, without duty : that all Christians now imprisoned 
should be liberated, and the free exercise of their religion should 
be allowed them ; that the King of Tunis should bind himself by 
oath, to pay the accustomed tribute to the Sicilian monarch ; and 
that he should defray all the expenses of the war, which amounted 
to two hundred and ten thousand ounces of gold; one-half of 
which was to be paid immediately, the remainder in two years." 
Hostilities ceased, and Philip returned to Paris to prepare for his 
coronation, which was performed at Rheims, by Milo, Bishop of 
Soissons. 

Matters being now arranged, Philip made a tour through his 
new dominions, and took necessary measures for quelling the only 
revolt that occurred during his reign. Geraud the Fifth, Count of 
Armagnac, laid claim to the sovereignty of the Castle Sompuy, 
in the diocese of Auch ; while Geraud de Casaubon, lord of tlie 
fief, maintained that he held it immediately of the king, as heir 
to the rights of the counts of Toulouse. The dispute grew warm 
between them ; and after several challenges on both sides, they 
prepared to decide it by sword. Casaubon was unable to resist 



155 PHILIP THE THIRD. 

the united forces of the powerful family of his antagonist, which 
was put under the protection of Philip, who cited the two offenders 
to appear before him, in order to answer for their conduct. Ge- 
raud d'Arraagnac obeyed the citation, sued for mercy, and obtained 
it on condition of paying a fine of fifteen thousand livres Tournois. 
But de Casaubon despised the order of his sovereign, and pre- 
pared for a vigorous defence. He depended on the advantageous 
situation of his little territory, which was surrounded by lofty 
mountains and defended by a great number of castles, strongly 
fortified both by nature and art. Hostilities then commenced, and 
Philip, at the head of his army, reached the castle of Foix in which 
the count himself had taken refuge. The difficulty of approach- 
ing this fortress compelled them to keep at a certain distance ; but 
Philip having taken an oath not to quit the place till he had ob- 
tained possession of it, either by force or capitulation, the work- 
men were ordered to cut a way through the rocks which sur- 
rounded the castle. Animated by the presence of their sovereign, 
they displayed so much ardor in proceeding with their task, that 
the count saw he must be obliged to yield ; he therefore sought 
to avert the resentment of Philip, by a timely surrender ; and 
repairing to the royal tent, threw himself at the king's feet, and 
sued for pardon. But he had proceeded too far to be so soon 
forgiven; the king confined him in a tower, in the city of Car- 
cossonne, and seized all his territories, except a small part which 
was claimed by the King of Arragon, but which that monarch 
afterwards ceded, in order to accelerate the release of the captive 
count. 

The count, after a year's imprisonment, was indebted for his 
liberty to the generosity of his sovereign ; he then repaired to 
Paris, expressed his contrition for his past conduct, and was re- 
ceived into favor by Philip. At the age of twelve years, Louis, 
the king's eldest son, suddenly expired ; and a report was indus- 
triously circulated that his death was occasioned by poison. La 
Brosse, who had an antipathy to the queen, seized on this cir- 
cumstance, to instil into the mind of Philip suspicions unfavora- 



PHILIP THE THIRD. I57 

ble to his virtuous consort. He artfully insinuated that the 
queen had committed this crime ; that she had formed a plan for 
getting rid of the two surviving princes, the sons of the first wife 
of Philip, in order to pave the way for the accession of her own 
children (should she have any) to the crown of France. 

Mezeray affirms, that he even paid a traitor, who publicly ac- 
cused Mary of administering the poison to the presumptive heir 
of the throne. The queen, in consequence of this accusation, 
was actually in fear of being burnt alive ; but her brother, the 
Duke of Brabant, sent a knight to justify her innocence by an 
appeal to the sword ; and the accuser, not daring to support his 
charge by a judicial combat, was declared guilty of calumny, and 
expiated his crime by an ignominious death. 

The king, however, was greatly embarrassed. The report that 
prevailed, though wholly devoid of foundation; the artful in- 
sinuations of his favorite ; the interest of Mary in the death of his 
sons by Isabella of Arragon ; all contributed to favor those ideas 
which La Brosse had been studious to excite. In order to clear 
up his doubts he resolved, agreeably to the superstition of the 
age, to consult a nun, a Beguine of Neville, who believed her- 
self inspired. He immediately dispatched Arnaud de Visemale, 
a knight-templar, to Neville. He was favorably received by the 
nun, and brought back a clear and unequivocal answer: — ■" Tell 
the king (said the prophetess), that he ought not to give credit to 
those who speak ill of his illustrious consort ; she is innocent of 
the crime imputed to her ; he may safely rely on her fidelity as 
well to himself as to his children." 

The king was now satisfied of the villany intended to be prac- 
tised on him, and La Brosse was hanged at Paris, in the presence 
of the nobles of that city. Philip, on returning from Gironne, 
after a victory over the Spaniards, was seized at Perpignan with 
the dysentery, which caused his death in the forty-first year of 
his age and sixteenth of his reign. Philip was twice married ; by 
his first wife, Isabella of Arragon, he had Louis, supposed to be 
poisoned, Philip surnamed the Fair, who succeeded him on the 



[58 PHILIP THE FOURTH. 

throne ; Charles, Count of Valois, and Robert, who died in his 
infancy. By his second wife, Mary of Brabant, he had Louis, 
Count of Evreux; and two daughters. The domains of the 
crown were augmented, during this reign, by the acquisition of 
the county of Toulouse, the port of Barfleur, estates in the 
Pays de Caux, the barony of Mcntmorillon, and the forest of 
Chavigni. 



PHILIP THE FOUKTH 



SURNAMED THE FAIR. 



A. D. 1285.] The gracefulness of his person and the beauty 
of his face had acquired Philip the Fourth the appellation of 
the Fair, who, but in his seventeenth year, with a spirit su- 
perior to his ability, undertook to accomplish all the schemes 
of his father and predecessor: to seat his brother Charles of 
Valois on the throne of Arragon ; to assert the claims of the 
infants De la Cerda to that of Castile ; and to constrain the 
rebels of Sicily to renew their submission to the house of Anjou. 

Before he entered on the execution of his plans, he repaired to 
E,heims, where he was crowned. 

A very short time sufficed to convince the young and aspiring 
monarch that the schemes he had undertaken were far beyond 
his power, and to show him the folly of his visionary projects. 
After many vain attempts on the territories of the King of Arra- 
gon, he was compelled to accept of an accommodation. By 
abandoning the interests of the infants De la Cerda, he adjusted 



PHILIP THE FOURTH. 159 

the disputes with Castile ; and the terms of peace between Al- 
fonso, who had succeeded his father Pedro to the throne of Arra- 
gon, and Philip, were settled by the mediation of Edward the 
First of England. But the tranquillity established by this accom- 
modation was speedily interrupted by a dispute with England ; 
a dispute more serious in its nature, and more dangerous in its 
consequences : — A Norman and an English vessel met off the 
coast near Bayonne, and both of them having occasion for water, 
they sent their boats to land, and the several crews came at the 
same time to the spring; a quarrel ensued, when a Norman, draw- 
ing his dagger, attempted to stab an Englishman, who, grappling 
with him, threw his adversary on the ground ; and the Norman, 
as was pretended, falling on his own dagger, was slain. 

This scuffle between two seamen about water, soon kindled a 
bloody war between the two nations, and involved a great part 
of Europe in a quarrel. The mariners of the Norman ship car- 
ried their complaints to the French king; and Philip, without 
inquiry into the fact, without demanding redress, bade them take 
revenge, and trouble him no more about the matter. They 
shortly after seized an English vessel in the Channel ; and hang- 
ing, along with some dogs, several of the crew, in presence of 
their companions, dismissed the vessel, and bade the mariners 
inform their countrymen that vengeance was now taken for the 
blood of the Norman, killed at Bayonne. This affair now be- 
gan to wear a formidable aspect ; and Philip sent an envoy to 
demand reparation and restitution. The king dispatched the 
Bishop of London to the French court in order to accommodate 
the quarrel. 

In order, however, to avoid a final rupture between the two na- 
tions, Edward dispatched his brother Edmond, Earl of Lancaster, 
to Paris ; and, as this prince had married the Queen of Navarre, 
mother of Jane, consort of Philip, he seemed, on account of that 
alliance, the most proper person for finding expedients to accom- 
modate the difference. 

This, however, was not easily accomplished, and the two mo- 



160 PHILIP THE FOURTH. 

narchs now prepared for war, each seeking to strengthen himself 
by forming alUances with the neighboring powers. Pope Boniface, 
however, after some difficulty, brought the kings to a final peace, 
and in order to cement the friendship of the two nations yet 
stronger, he proposed a double marriage, that of Edward himself, 
who was a widower, to Margaret, Philip's sister; and that of 
the Prince of Wales to Isabella, daughter of Philip. This was 
agreed to and a final tranquillity ensued. Many years of the 
reign of Philip passed without much interest, with the exception 
of frequent revolts which were soon quelled. On his death-bed 
Phihp cast a retrospective eye on the various transactions of his 
reign ; and at that moment, when the voice of adulation had lost its 
wonted power, he found his own gratifications had ever been con- 
sulted in preference to the welfare of his people. 

Philip had by his queen, Jane of Navarre, four sons : Louis, 
Philip, and Charles, who successively attained to the royal dig- 
nity, and Robert, who died young. To Louis, his eldest son and 
successor, he gave the most salutary advice. He strictly enjoined 
him to relieve his subjects from any oppression they might be 
laboring under. He expired at Fontainebleau in the thirtieth 
year of his reign and forty-sixth of his age, and was interre^l at 
Saint Denis. 



LOUIS THE TENTH. 



A. D. 1314.] On the accession of Louis to the throne of 
his ancestors, all Europe was convulsed with intestine commo- 
tions. Edward the Second of England, a weak but well-disposed 
prince, was harassed by his factious and turbulent barons, for 
entrusting to others the weighty cares of government which he 
was unable to bear himself. Germany, by the death of the Em- 
peror, Henry of Luxembourg, was equally convulsed by two 
contending factions. Rome was exposed to the same disorders, 
and from a similar cause. The Castilians were engag-ed in a 
war with the Moors, whom, though they often defeated, they 
could never reduce. 

^ Such was the situation of the neighboring powers when Louis 
ascended the throne ; nor was his own kingdom in a greater state 
of tranquillity. Most of the provinces had either actually re- 
volted, or were ready to revolt; in that of Sens, a revolt had 
already taken place. 

Notwithstanding the immense sums which had been levied 
during the late reign, on the king's decease the treasury was so 
far exhausted that there was not sufficient money to defray the 
expense of a coronation. " Where then," said Louis, one day in 
full council, " are the tenths which were levied on the clergy ? 
What has become of the numerous subsidies exacted from the 
people ? Where are the riches that must have been derived 
from the debasement of the coin?" "Sire," said the Count of 
Valois, " Marigny was entrusted with all this money ; it is his 
place to give an account of it." Marigny protested that he was 
ready to do so whenever he should receive the king's orders for 
11 



162 LOUIS THE TENTH. 

that purpose. " Let it be done then, immediately," exclaimed the 
count. " With all my heart," replied the minister ; " I gave you, 
sir, a great part of it ; the rest was employed in defraying the 
expenses of the state, and in carrying on the war against the 
Flemings." "You lie!" said Charles, in a rage. — "It is your- 
self who is the liar, sir," returned the minister, with more spirit 
than prudence. The count immediately drew his sword ; Ma- 
rigny put himself in a posture of defence, and the consequences 
must have been serious but for the interference of the council, 
who hastened to separate them. Some days after this incident, 
Marigny, relying too much on his own innocence, attended the 
council as usual; but he was arrested as he entered the king's 
apartment, and conveyed to the prison of the Louvre, of which 
he was governor ; from thence, at the intercession of the Count 
of Valois, he was transferred to the temple, and thrown into a 
dungeon. Ralph de Preles, a celebrated advocate, the intimate 
friend of Marigny, was also arrested, through fear that he might 
furnish the minister with such means of defence as might baffle 
all the efforts of his adversaries. 

Some pretext, however, was necessary to cover the iniquity of 
this proceeding ; Ralph was therefore accused of having conspired 
against the life of the late king ; and, by an instance of unpa- 
ralleled injustice, his effects were immediately confiscated, and 
were not restored even after his innocence had been established. 
The king, indeed, on his death-bed, felt a remorse of conscience, 
and did all that he could to repair this injury. In his last will 
he ordered all the lands and effects belonging to Ralph de Preles 
to be restored, whether they were in possession of the crown or 
of individuals. 

Louis caused an asseinbly to be convened in the woods, at 
which he presided in person, in order to hear the charges pre- 
ferred against him by his uncle, Charles, Count of Valois. The 
accusations were numerous; but the most serious were these: 
That he had debased the coin ; burdened the people with taxes ; 
artfully persuaded the late king to make him presents to a large 



LOUIS THE TENTH. 163 

amount ; stole considerable sums that had been destined for the 
use of Edmond de C4oth, a relation of the Pope ; issued vari- 
ous orders unauthorized by his sovereign; and maintained a 
traitorous correspondence with the Flemings. Such of these 
charges as were founded on facts had been acts of the king, 
and not of the minister. The rest were wholly unsupported 
by proof; nor, indeed, did the Count of Valois bring any 
proof. So little regard did he pay even to the forms of justice, 
that he refused to hear what the party accused had to urge in his 
own defence. Charles had proceeded too far to retract, and his 
influence over the mind of his nephew Was such, that he per- 
suaded him to let the matter rest for some days, when he did 
not doubt of being able to convince him more fully of his minis- 
ter's guilt. He then proceeded to suborn some witnesses, who 
deposed that xilips de Mons, wife to Marigny, and the lady of 
Canteleu, his sister, had had recourse to witchcraft in order to 
save him, and that they had made the images of the kino-, the 
Count De Valois, and some of the barons in wax. In those 
days of ignorance and superstition, it was believed that any 
operations performed in such images would affect the persons 
they represented ; and in the ancient chronicle of Saint Denis, 
it is gravely asserted, that so long as these had lasted, the said 
king, count and barons would have daily wasted away, till they 
had died. Absurd as this may appear, the two ladies were 
seized and confined in the prison of the Louvre, and the magi- 
cian, James de Lor, who was said to have assisted them in their 
magic incantations, was committed to the Chatelet, with his wife, 
who was afterwards burned, his servant hung on a gibbet, and De 
Lor himself strangled. Marigny, having been declared guilty of 
all the crimes that were laid to his charge, was sentenced to be 
hanged. This iniquitous sentence was executed on the 30th of 
April, 1315, at break of day (the time at which all executions 
were then performed), and his body was afterwards suspended 
on a gibbet at Montfaucon. The Count of Valois on his death- 
bed acknowledged the injustice of his own conduct, and the inno- 



1^4 LOUIS THE TENTH. 

cence of Marigny, whose family was, at a subsequent period, 
reinstated in all the honors and possessions of which he had been 
so unjustly deprived. 

While the king was thus employed in repressing the disorders 
which had prevailed in his dominions, and revolving new pre- 
parations for his projected attack upon Flanders, he was seized 
with a disorder that put an end to his life. Some authors pre- 
tend that he was poisoned, but no mention is made of the author 
of the crime. Louis was of a liberal and generous disposition, 
but wanted prudence and firmness ; his intentions were generally 
good, but he had not resolution sufficient to put them in execu- 
tion. Had his life been spared, he might probably have corrected 
his errors, and proved a good king. He only reigned two years, 
and was interred at Saint Denis. 

Louis had, a few months previous to his death, married Cle- 
mence, daughter of the King of Hungary, who was pregnant at 
his decease. This caused an interregnum of some months, for, 
by the will of Louis, if Clemence brought forth a son, he was of 
course heir to the throne, with Clemence as regent ; if a daughter, 
then the crown to be placed on the head of his brother Philip. 
Clemence, however, gave birth to a prince, who was named John, 
but lived only five days ; consequently Philip was proclaimed 
King of France. 



PHILIP THE FIFTH 



SURNAMED THE LONG. 



A. D. 1316.] Although Philip was the undoubted heir to the 
throne, he nevertheless met with many obstacles to his accession. 
These, hoAvever, being in part removed, on the Sunday after the 
Epiphany, Philip and his queen were crowned at Rheims by 
Robert de Courtenai, Archbishop of that diocese, in the presence 
of Charles of Valois, and Louis, Count of Evreux. But cer- 
tain apprehensions induced the king to order the doors of the 
church to be shut during the ceremony, and the guard to be dou- 
bled. No sooner had the young monarch, who had just entered 
his twenty-fourth year, returned to Paris, than he convened an 
assembly of the prelates, nobles, and citizens of the capital, who 
all swore to yield him obedience as their lawful sovereign, and, 
after him, to obey his son Louis ; v/ho, however, died in a few 
days, at the age of seven months. 

At this assembly, an express law was made to exclude females 
from the throne. It was, indeed, only declaratory of that which 
had been in force from the commencement of the monarchy, 
though no occasion for calling it into action had ever occurred — 
since all tlie sovereigns, from Hugh Capet to the present time, 
that is, for the space of three hundred and thirty years, had suc- 
ceeded to the throne from father to son. Philip's next care was 
to quell the discontents which prevailed in different parts of the 
kingdom, by the alternate exertion of force and address. He 
was employed, during the greater part of his reign, in the adop- 
tion of salutary regulations, as well for checking abuses in the 



166 PHILIP THE FIFTH, 

administration of justice, as for facilitating the internal traffic of 
the kingdom, by establishing an uniformity of coin, weights and 
measures. But this last design, laudable as it was, had nearly 
excited a revolt. A report was industriously propagated, that, in 
order to indemnify those who enjoyed the privilege of coining, 
he had resolved to impose a tax upon all his subjects, amounting 
to one-fifth of their property. ' 

Associations were immediately formed in various parts of the 
kingdom; and the nobility and clergy joined the people in their 
efforts to resist an impost both onerous and unprecedented. 
Philip, therefore, was obliged to give up the scheme ; but, such 
was the misery occasioned by the debasement of the coin, that 
he resolved, at all events, to deprive the barons and prelates of 
that dangerous privilege. 

This measure he enforced with equal spirit and success in 
Chartres, Anjou, Clermont, and the Bourbonnois, and there is 
little doubt that he would finally have accomplished the total abo- 
lition of private mints, had he not been seized with a violent fever, 
accompanied by a dysentery which put an end to his life. He 
expired at Long Champ, on the third of January, 1322, in the 
twenty-eighth year of his age and sixth of his reign. 

His body was conveyed to St. Denis and his heart to the con- 
vent of the Cordeliers, at Paris. 

Philip was a just and virtuous prince, whose only fault appears 
to have been an exorbitant love of money, which sometimes led 
him to adopt measures inconsistent with the general tenor of his 
conduct. Philip left no son. His brother Charles, Count of la 
Marche, succeeded him to the throne. 







//■/. (Jr„'.-/'V. 



CHARLES THE FOURTH 



SURNAMED THE FAIR. 



A. D. 1322.] Charles, Count of la Marche, brother to Philip, 
was crowned at Rheims, by Robert de Courtenai, Archbishop of 
that diocese. His first care was to procure a divorce from his 
wife, Blanche, of Burgundy, whose previous conduct had caused 
her tOvbe confined in the prison of Chateau-Gaillard. The court 
of Rome being inclined to gratify his inclinations, readily granted 
the divorce, and Charles, soon after, gave his hand to Mary of 
Luxembourg, daughter to the Emperor Henry the Seventh, and 
sister to John, Duke of Bohemia. The pope was induced to 
grant this indulgence to the king, from a promise which he made 
to undertake a crusade for the relief of the Cyprian and Arme- 
nian Christians, who were cruelly harassed by the infidels. But 
though considerable preparations were made for this expedition, 
it never took place, Charles having found the immediate concerns 
of his kingdom sufficient to employ his attention, and to occupy his 
forces. Apprized of the tyrannical proceedings of the nobility, 
who seized with impunity the property of their weaker neighbors, 
and exerted the most despotic sway over the country in which 
they resided, Charles sent commissioners of approved integrity 
and known talents into the different provinces, as well to repress 
their licentious proceedings, as to check the abuses arising from 
the venality and ignorance of the provincial judges. Charles, 
having lost his queen, procured a dispensation from the pope, and 
married Jane, daughter to Louis, Count of Evreux, his paternal 
uncle. This princess was crowned with great pomp, in the chapel 



168 CHARLES THE FOURTH. 

adjoining his palace. The attention of Charles was now called 
to an object of less magnitude from its immediate consequence, 
than from its probable effects. A nobleman of Agenois, named 
Montpesat, had erected a fortress on a spot which, he pretended, 
belonged to the King of England, as Duke of Aquitaine, but 
which the king's officers maintained to be situated on the domains 
of the crown. The dispute was carried before the parliament, 
which decided in favor of the French monarch. Montpesat, 
enraged at a sentence which he believed to be unjust, had re- 
course to the seneschal of Guienne, who supplied him with 
troops ; and laying siege to the fortress, which had been taken 
from him in consequence of the decision of the parliament, car- 
ried it by assault, put the garrison to the sword, and hanged some 
of the officers. 

Charles, instead of making reprisals, applied for reparation to 
the King of England. Edward promised him satisfaction, and 
even dispatched his brother Edmond, Earl of Kent, to Paris, with 
full power to investigate the fact, and to decide on the nature of 
the reparation to be made to the French monarch ; who required 
that the fortress which had occasioned such dispute should be 
surrendered to him, and that Montpesat, with the seneschal of 
Guienne, and all their accomplices, should be delivered into his 
hands, in order to be punished according to the magnitude of their 
offence. This dispute occasioned a war which resulted in the 
demolition of the fortress ; and all Guienne, except Bourdeaux 
and Bayonne, surrendered to the French. 

Shortly after this a peace was concluded on the following terms 
— that all places taken by either party, in the course of the war, 
should be restored ; that the King of England should pay the 
King of France fifty thousand pounds sterling, to defray the 
expenses of the war ; and that a general amnesty should be 
passed. 

Charles died soon after the conclusion of this peace in the thirty- 
third year of his age and sixth of his reign. He was a prince 
neither distinguished for any great virtues, nor remarkable for his 



PHILIP THE SIXTH. ]69 

vices ; avarice was his chief defect, but where that did not lead 
him to acts of oppression, he was careful to enforce a due ob- 
servance of order, and an impartial administration of justice. 
Charles had three wifes, Blanche of Burgundy, Mary of Lux- 
embourg, and Jane of Evreux. He had children by each, who all 
died in their infancy. At his death, his queen Jane was far 
advanced in pregnancy ; for which reason, as soon as he was 
convinced of the impossibility of his recovery, he sent for the 
principal nobles of his court, and told them, that if the queen 
should bring forth a prince, he appointed Philip of Valois regent 
of the kingdom ; if a princess, it would then rest with the chief 
barons of France to decide on whom the crown should devolve. 
Charles was the last of the immediate descendants of Hugh 
Capet, who had swayed the sceptre of France for near three 
centuries and a half, but which w^as now transferred to the House 
of Valois. 



PHILIP THE SIXTH. 



A. D. 1328.] With this monarch commences the House of 
Valois. We have seen the French monarchy, founded by Phara- 
mond, extending and diminishing its limits during the reigns of 
the Merovingian kings ; comprising two-thirds of Europe during 
the splendid reign of Charlemagne ; diminishing its lustre under 
the feeble descendants of Louis the Gentle ; assuming a new form 
from the vigorous policy of Hugh Capet ; restored to its former 
splendor under the benignant influence of Saint Louis, and finally 
enlarged by the fourth and fifth Philips. Charles the Fair had, 



170 PHILIP THE SIXTH. 

as we have before observed, on his death bed, nominated Philip 
of Valois to the regency, in the presence of the nobles of his 
court. The regency vi^as justly considered as a step tovi^ards the 
reo-al dignity ; since whoever obtained it, might, from having the 
whole force of the kingdom at his disposal, easily procure himself 
to be proclaimed king, in case the queen should give birth to a 
daughter. Great precautions, therefore, w^ere necessary in making 
this important choice, and great interest was made to become the 
object of it. The queen was delivered of a daughter which 
settled the crown on the head of Philip, who, with his wife, was 
crowned at Rheims, amidst the acclamations of the people. 

Immediately after the accession of Philip, he was called upon 
to decide a dispute between Edward of England, and Jane, then 
Countess of Evreux, as daughter and sole heiress to the eldest 
son of Jane, Qaeen of Navarre. 

The disputed territories were Navarre, Champagne and Brie. 
Philip assembled the barons and principal nobles of his court, and 
with their advice proclaimed the Count of Evreux, and his wife 
Jane, King and Queen of Navarre — an act of justice that gave his 
subjects a favorable opinion of his disposition and principles. 
But Philip, unwilling to part with the provinces of Champagne 
and Brie, proposed to the new monarch of Navarre an exchange, 
which, in consideration of the service he had rendered them, they 
consented to accept. 

By the deed of cession, the King and Queen of Navarre 
renounce "purely, generally, absolutely, perpetually, and for 
ever," in favor of the French monarch, his heirs and successors, 
all the rights which they have or may have to Champagne and 
Brie. They make a full, pure, and true cession of the same, with- 
out any restriction, and with a solemn engagement to make no 
future demand thereon. The king, in return, gave the queen 
Jane the counties of Angouleme and Mortain ; also other lands 
in the district of Aunis and in Saintonge, with a pension of many 
thousand livres from his treasury. The protection of Philip was 
now claimed by some of his vassals, whose territories had been 



PHILIP THE SIXTH. 171 

invaded by the Flemings. Philip having paid his respects (as 
v^as customary) to the holy relics preserved at the Abbey of Saint 
Denis, and observed the superstitious ceremonies of the times, 
vrith the view to secure the smiles of God upon his undertakings, 
he advanced towards Flanders, and directed his steps towards 
Cassel, which he invested; then ravaged the circumjacent coun- 
try. The French army amounted to thirty thousand men, of 
whom thirteen or fourteen thousand were men-at-arms. The 
rebel army, much inferior in numbers, was wholly composed of 
infantry, consisting of peasants, fishermen, and artisans, who had 
chosen for theirgeneral a fishmonger named Colin Dannequin, a 
man of bold and enterprising spirit, whose courage and cunning 
appeared to supply his want of military experience. 

Such was the champion opposed to a powerful monarch ; and 
such the troops which as illustrious a band of nobles as Europe 
could produce was destined to encounter. But men fighting 
in the cause of freedom disdain the vain trappings of rank, and 
fix their hopes of success on a far nobler foundation. The 
proud battalions of France looked with supercilious contempt 
on their undisciplined foes, who, undismayed by their superior- 
ity of numbers, prepared to meet them with undaunted resolu- 
tion ; and, had not their valor been too precipitate, Philip would 
have been compelled to retreat without glory or advantage. 
The Flemings had chosen a most advantageous post, on an emi- 
nence, in the front of Cassel. On one of the towers of that town 
they hoisted the standard of defiance, on which was represented 
the figure of a cock, with the following couplet beneath: 

" Quand ce coq chante aura, 
Le Roi Cassel conquerera." 

Dannequin, in the mean time, was busily employed in forming 
a scheme for securing by stratagem a victory which he could no 
hope to obtain by open force. He every day went to the French 
camp with fish, which he sold at a moderate price, in order to 
conciliate the confidence of the army, and to procure greater 



J 72 PHILIP THE SIXTH. 

liberty for observing what passed. He remarked, that the French 
remained a long time at table; that after their meals, they played 
and danced, and slept during the heat of the day. These observa- 
tions, too-ether with the carelessness of the different guards, in- 
duced the bold plebeian to form the design of carrying off the 

king. 

At the eve of Saint Bartholomew, about two in the afternoon, 
an hour which he knew the French devoted to repose, he di- 
vided his troops into three bodies, one of which he ordered to 
march without noise to that quarter of the camp where the King 
of Bohemia commanded; a second was directed to bend its 
course against the part that was subject to the orders of the 
Count of Hainault ; and, placing himself at the third, he entered 
the camp in silence, and penetrated as far as the royal tent, 
which was negligently guarded. When the Flemings approached, 
the French imagined that it was a reinforcement come to join the 
king ; and- Renaud de Lor, a noble chevalier, impressed with this 
idea, went out to meet them, and gently chided them for thus 
disturbing the repose of their friends; but, instead of a reply, 
he received a wound from a javelin, which stretched him on the 
ground. 

This was the signal for battle. The Flemings instandy drew 
their swords, and cut down ail before them. The alarm was 
immediately spread throughout the camp, and confused excla- 
mations announced the danger to v/hich the army w^as exposed. 
The first who warned the king of his situation was his confessor, 
a Dominican friar, whose imagination Philip at first conceived to 
be deranged by fear. He was soon, however, convinced that 
the danger was real ; and having with difficulty procured some 
one to arm him, all his knights and esquires having sought 
safety in flight, he mounted his horse, and would fain have ad- 
vanced to attack the enemy ; but being persuaded by Miles de 
Noyers to wait till he had rallied his troops, that brave knight 
fixed the royal standard on a rising ground, when all the cavalry 
liastened to defend it. 



PHILIP THE SIXTH. 173 

The Flemings were now attacked in their turn; and being 
completely surrounded by the superior numbers of the French, 
they were all cut to pieces. " Not a man escaped," says Frois- 
sart, " not a man fled ; they were ail killed, and lay one upon 
another, without having stirred from the spot where the battle 
began." 

The king, in a letter which he wrote on the subject to the 
Abbot of Saint Denis, makes the number amount to nineteen 
thousand eight hundred. The French, it is said, lost only 
seventeen men, (an assertion scarcely credible,) though a con- 
siderable number of horses were destroyed. Flanders now 
remained at the mercy of the conqueror, who, having taken the 
town of Cassel, reduced it to ashes. A priest, having endeavored 
to dissuade the people from submitting to such rigorous mea- 
sures, was cowardly attacked by the French officers, when he 
took refuge in a neighboring house, with fourteen others ; the 
house was immediately set on fire ; and the priest and his com- 
panions perished in the flames. The French historians speak 
in terms of exultation of Philip's success in this expedition ; they 
triumph in his victories, and suffer his barbarity to escape with- 
out a single reproach. But every friend to humanity must shud- 
der at the indiscriminate slaughter which tarnished the splendor 
of his victories. In the heat of the battle, the principle of self- 
defence may naturally rise predominant over every other con- 
sideration, and forcibly impel us to destroy, where it might be 
possible to spare ; but, without any such stimulus, and in cool 
blood, to promote the same massacre of our fellow-creatures, 
displays a savage ferociousness of mind that every faithful his- 
torian should hold up to the execration of posterity. The reign 
of Philip was anything but pacific, Edward of England having 
right to small provinces in France, Philip took every opportunity 
to annoy him, in order to become himself the proprietor. Several 
trifling battles occurred, and Calais was taken and retaken several 
times ; but Edward, tired of the tyranny of Philip, demanded a 
truce for three years, during which time Philip fell sick at Nogent 



174 JOHN. 

le Roi, where he died in a few days, in the fifty-seventh year of 
his age, and the twenty-second of his reign. Philip had by his 
first wife, Jane of Burgundy, John, Duke of Normandy, who 
succeeded him to the throne ; Philip, Duke of Orleans, and one 
daughter ; and by his second wife, Blanche, one daughter, Jane, 
who died at Beziers, on her way to Barcelona, whither she was 
going to espouse John, son of the King of Arragon. 



JOHN. 



A. D. 1350.] The new monarch and his queen were crowned 
at Rheims on the twenty-sixth of September, and on the same 
day John conferred the dignity of knighthood on his three sons, 
Charles the Dauphin, the Dukes of Anjou and Alencon; and on 
his brother, the Duke of Orleans. The pope was no sooner 
informed of the death of Philip of Valois, than he wrote to the 
Kings of France and England exhorting them to peace. 

Edward, adhering to those maxims of policy which he had 
adopted at the commencement of his reign, appeared willing to 
accept the mediation of the sovereign pontiff, but he could only 
be brought to consent to a confirmation of the truce concluded in 
the preceding reign, a truce which was prolonged at different 
times, for the space of three years. 

John was now at variance with Philip of Navarre, and Geof- 
frey of Harcourt, who had been to England and done homage- to 
Edward as Duke of Normandy, and confessed that they held of 
him the provinces of Saint Sauveur-le-Vicomte, and other very 
considerable estates in Normandy. Edward in return made Geof- 



JOHN. 175 

frey lieutenant in Normandy, and promised, as soon as the truce 
expired, that the Duke of Lancaster should join them with an 
army of forty thousand men and march at once into the dominions 
of John, binding themselves by the terms of the alliance to con- 
tinue till they shall have effected a conquest of the kingdom. 

The terms of the truce having expired, preparations were made 
for their intended march, and the Duke of Lancaster, with a 
formidable force, joined the forces of Philip of Navarre, and 
invaded Normandy, preparing for further incursions into the 
territories of the French king. From thence he penetrated into 
Perche, and reduced Verneuil, which he dismantled, and partly 
burned. 

As soon as the king was informed of the landing of the English 
forces, he assembled his troops, and took the road to Verneuil, 
where he expected to meet the enemy ; but he found that they 
had altered their course, and directed their march towards the 
town of Aigle. 

Thither he accordingly repaired ; but on his arrival he found 
the English so strongly intrenched in the neighboring forests that, 
fearful of falling into an ambuscade, he thought it prudent to re- 
treat. These transactions in Normandy were but the prelude to 
the operations of this campaign, although the season was so far 
advanced that there appeared to be but little time left to under- 
take any enterprise of importance. An enemy more formidable 
than the Duke of Lancaster threatened the opposite extremity of 
the kingdom. 

While John was employed in the siege of Breteuil, the Prince 
of Wales was laying waste the southern parts of France. John 
had not been informed of the irruption of the Prince of Wales 
till his return to Paris, after the reduction of Breteuil. The 
moment he received the intelligence, he swore that he would 
march against him, and bring him to action wherever he should 
find him. 

Having proceeded on their march till within sight of the enemy, 
John mounted on a white courser, rode along the ranks, and thus 



176 ^"^""'^'^^ 

^dSi^dlidr^i--" Soldiers, when you are at Paris, Chartres, 
Rouen, or Orleans, you threaten the English, and wish to be in 
their presence with your helmets on ; now you are in their pre- 
sence ; yonder they are : if you wish to take vengeance for the 
injuries you have sustained, and to punish your enemies for what 
they have made you suffer, now is your time, for we shall cer- 
tainly fight them." 

The soldiers replied to this laconic harangue by protestations 
of courage and fidelity. 

John now commanded one of the first armies that France had 
produced for a long time ; it amounted to more than sixty thousand 
men, among M^hom were the four sons of the king and three 
thousand nobles. To this formidable army was opposed a body 
of eight thousand English and about an equal number of Gascons ; 
but weak as it was in comparison with the enemy, whose attack 
it was destined to sustain, it had the advantage of being com- 
manded by the gallant Prince of Wales, the celebrated hero of 
Cressy. 

The king asked Eustace de Ribaumont which was the best 
mode of beginning the attack ; and that nobleman advised him to 
dismount all the men-at-arms, except three hundred of the bravest 
and best mounted, who should lead the way, and endeavor to force 
a passage through the English archers. His advice being ap- 
proved, orders were given accordingly. All the men-at-arms dis- 
mounted, except the three hundred who were to begin the attack, 
under the command of Mareschals Clermont and D'Andreghen, 
and the German cavalry who were destined to support them. 
The men-at-arms were ordered to take off their spurs, and to cut 
their lances down to five feet, for the greater convenience of en- 
gaging in close fight. As soon as the troops began to move, they 
were stopped by the appearance of the pope's legate, who, having 
learned the approach of the two armies to each other, hastened 
to prevent, if possible, the effusion of blood. By John's per- 
mission, he repaired to the Prince of Wales, whom he found 
willing to listen to any terms of accommodation that were not 



JOHN. 177 

inconsistent with'his own honor, and that of England. He even 
offered a cession of all the conquests he had made in the course 
of that and the preceding campaign, by restoring all the pri- 
soners and booty he had taken, and by engaging not to bear arms 
against France for seven years. But John peremptorily persisted 
that the prince should surrender himself prisoner, with a hundred 
of his knights. The negotiation, therefore, was broken off, Edward 
declaring that he would never accede to such dishonorable terms; 
and that, whatever fortune might attend him, England should 
never have his ransom to pay. Early in the morning the two 
armies were drawn up in order of battle. The French were dis- 
posed as before ; and the Prince of Wales had, in imitation of 
his adversary, also divided his army into three lines. The van was 
commanded by the Earl of Warwick, the main body by the prince 
himself, and the rear by the Earls of Salisbury and Suffolk. The 
Lords Chandos, Audley, and many other brave and experienced 
officers, were at the head of different corps. 

Just before the action began, the Cardinal de Perigord, the 
pope'§ legate, being resolved to make one final effort for an ac- 
commodation, again appeared at the head of the French army; but 
the king and his generals told him they would listen to no terms, 
and advised him to make a hasty retreat, or he might perhaps 
have reason to repent his forwardness. 

He then took his leave of John, and riding up to the Prince of 
Wales, said, "My fair son, do your best, for you must fight." 
"It is our intention to do so, father," replied Edward; "and may 
God assist the just!" The signal for battle was given, and the 
English archers plied their arrows with such effect that the mare- 
schals and their three hundred men were soon destroyed. The 
lane was so strewed wdth the bodies of men and horses that the 
last ranks were unable to advance. 

The noblemen who attended the young princes, instead of at- 
tempting to remedy the disorder occasioned by the flight of so 
many,4ook them off the field, and sought to conceal their own 
cowardice beneath the specious pretext of preserving the hopes 
12 



178 JOHN. 

of the state. The Duke of Orleans, who commanded the second 
division, acted still more cowardly, by setting an example of 
flight to his men, even before he had drawn his sword. The 
Prince of Wales, observing the confusion that now prevailed 
in the French army, mounted his horse, and gave orders to such 
of his men-at-arms, as had hitherto fought on foot, to follow his 
example. Lord Chandos, who was near him during the whole 
action, said, " Come along, sir, the victory is our ov/n ; nothing 
now remains but to attack the battalion commanded by the king." 
Pointing to the King of France, who was distinguished by his 
martial air, and by a coat of mail, embellished with golden ^et^rs 
lie lis, he exclaimed, " I know that his courage will prevent him 
from flying; so with the aid of God and St. George, we shall 
soon have him in our power." "Come along, Chandos," re- 
plied the prince ;" no one this day shall see me retreat." He 
then advanced to attack the king's division, which still remained 
entire, and superior in numbers to the English army, though 
somewhat dismayed by the flight of their companions. The 
battle now became serious. The King of France, enraged at 
the desertion of his two first divisions, determined, by his own 
conduct, to set a worthy example to his remaining troops. Never 
did a monarch display greater intrepidity of soul than John 
evinced on this memorable occasion. The shock was dreadful ; 
neither party could claim a superiority of valor in the bloody fray ; 
equal resolution appeared on both sides; and the ground, strewed 
with the bodies of the dying and dead, was disputed inch by inch. 
A body of German cavalry, commanded by the Counts of Sarbruck, 
Nydo, and Nassau, being placed in front, the Prince of Wales 
rushed on them with great fury, soon routed them, killed two of 
their leaders and took the third prisoner. Still, however, the 
French, animated by the presence and example of their sovereign, 
made a desperate resistance. The Duke of Athens being slain, 
his brigade gave way and left the king to sustain the undivided 
fury of the English. His son Philip, fighting by his side, dis- 
played an intrepidity superior to his age. Whenever a blow was 



JOHN. 179 

aimed at his father, he rushed forward to catch it; and the wound 
he received in thus nobly discharging the duties of a child and a 
hero, was the most glorious of any that was inflicted that day. 
The Duke of Bourbon was by this time slain, and the standard 
of France lay prostrate on the ground, clasped in the lifeless arms 
of the valiant Charney, who had refused to quit the precious 
charge. The ranks were thinned, the carnage was dreadful; but 
the king seemed to rise superior to misfortune, and rallying round 
his person the few surviving nobles, determined, by a desperate 
effort, to retrieve, if possible, the fortune of the day. Wielding 
his axe with amazing strength and dexterity, he dealt destruc- 
tion on all who dared to approach him. In vain did his enemies 
exhort him to yield. He seemed intent on death or victory. 

But exhausted, at length, by such violent and continued exer- 
tion, and having received two wounds on his face, from the loss 
of his helmet, which had fallen off in the heat of the action, a 
French knight, who had been expelled his country for a murder 
committed in a private war, approached him, and again exhorted 
him to surrender. 

"To whom shall I surrender?" said the king. " Where is my 
cousin, the Prince of Wales ? Could I see him, I might consent 
to surrender." " The prince," answered the knight, "is not here ; 
but surrender to me, and I will conduct you to him." " Who 
are you ?" asked the king. " Sire," said he, " I am Denis de 
Morbec, a knight of Artois. I serve the King of England because 
I cannot return to France, having spent my fortune." 

John then threw down his gauntlet, saying to Denis, " To you 
I yield myself." The Prince of Wales, who had pursued the 
fugitives to some distance, finding the field entirely clear on his 
return, had ordered a tent to be pitched, that he might repose 
himself after the fatigue of the battle. Having inquired after the 
King of France, and found that he had not fled, he dispatched 
the Earl of Warwick and Lord Cobham in search of him ; and 
these noblemen arrived just in time to save the captive prince, 
as a violent altercation had arisen between a party of English 



180 JOHN. 

and Gascon soldiers, who had taken him from Morbec, and 
were disputing about his ransom. When Warwick and Cobham 
appeared, their presence put a stop to the contention. They 
approached the king with the greatest demonstrations of respect, 
and offered to conduct him to the Prince of Wales. France 
lost on this disastrous day, six thousand of her bravest citizens. 
There was scarcely a noble family in the kingdom but had to 
deplore the loss of a relation. All historians unite in declaring 
that the generosity displayed by the conquerors after the batde, 
added a new lustre to their victory. Minds the most brutal may 
be endued with courage, and ignorance of danger may impel 
the callous and unfeeling soul to exertions of valor; but the vir- 
tues of moderation and humanity are indispensably requisite to the 
formation of a hero; and never did mortal possess those virtues in 
a more eminent degree than young Edward. 

Though furious amidst the din of battle, he was now all mild- 
ness and humility. When the captive monarch approached his 
tent, the prince went forth to meet him with a countenance that 
bespoke the sympathetic feelings of his mind. He received John 
with every possible mark of tenderness and regard ; attempted to 
soothe him by the most consolatory language that dignified com- 
passion could suggest; paid the tribute of praise that was due to 
his valor; ascribed his own success to accident, that often, he 
observed, overturned the best concerted plans ; and finally, assured 
him he had fallen into the hands of those who knew how to honor 
his virtues and to respect his misfortunes. 

John's conduct on this trying occasion showed him worthy 
the generous treatment he experienced. He suffered no mean de- 
pression of spirits to render him forgetful of his own dignity ; or 
to sink the sovereign in the captive. Young Edward ordered a 
repast to be prepared in his own tent for the royal captive, and 
assisted in serving him. He constantly refused to be seated at 
table, declaring that he knew too well the distance between a 
subject and a sovereign to be guilty of such an impropriety. 

The French officers who had been taken prisoners, were treated 
with equal kindness and respect. 



JOHN. ISl 

During the residence of the royal prisoner at Bourdeaux, whi- 
ther young Edward had conveyed him since the batde of Poic- 
tiers, several attempts were made by the Cardinal of Perigord, 
the Pope's legate, who acted in the character of a mediator, to 
promote an accommodation; but the ambitious policy of Edward, 
King of England, prevented the Prince of Wales from complying 
with his request. Edward had given his son, previous to his 
departure from England, full power to conclude a treaty of peace 
or alliance; but at that time the King of France was at liberty. 

Affairs were now changed. He rejected, therefore, every pro- 
ject of pacification that was presented to him, and required that 
John should be conducted to London. He would only consent 
to the conclusion of a truce for two years, and that merely from 
motives of interest, that he might convey the captive monarch 
with safety to England. 

Accordingly the truce was signed, and the King of France 
was conveyed by night to London, where he was received by 
Edward with great pomp, and conducted to the palace of the 
Savoy. John remained a state prisoner to Edward, during the 
two years of the truce, and was treated with every respect due to 
his rank. The truce being expired, John became impatient to re- 
cover his liberty. He flattered himself that he could obtain from 
Edward more suitable terms, if he treated with him in person. 

The King of England profited by his good fortune to prescribe 
the most rigorous terms ; and John, anxious to return to his do- 
minions, consented to all he proposed. The treaty, signed by 
the two monarchs, by the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of 
Bourbon, was sent to France for the regent's ratification. An 
assembly was convened, and William de Dormans, the advocate- 
general, read the treaty aloud. The terms of the treaty were of 
such a nature, that the whole assembly burst into one general 
murmur of indignation, and unanimously exclaimed that they 
would never submit to such terms, but would continue the war 
against England. 

When the answer of the regent and assembly was delivered 



182 JOHN. 

to the two kings, John, who did not expect a refusal, evinced the 
greatest displeasure; while Edward protested that, before the 
winter was over, he would enter France with such a formidable 
army, that the regent and his party would be compelled to ac- 
cede to any terms he should choose to impose, and that he would 
not disarm till France was totally subdued. He immediately 
made the necessary preparations for putting his threats into exe- 
cution, and on the fourth of November landed at Calais with an 
army of one hundred thousand men, besides the sons of the 
principal nobility of England. The troops were attended with six 
thousand wagons, which carried their baggage, provisions and 
artillery. Thus the King of England accompanied his army 
in person as it was his wish to be invested with the royal diadem 
of France ; and so convinced was he of success, that he took 
with him the Bishops of Lincoln and Durham, in order to per- 
form the ceremony. On the arrival of Edward's army at the 
gates of Paris, the regent and his ministers consulted again on 
the treaty before proposed to them. They accordingly drew up 
another much modified from the first, but which conceded to 
Edward a large portion of the kingdom, and large sums of 
money, to be paid by instalments. At the payment of the first 
instalment John was to receive his liberty. This treaty was 
acceded to by Edward, and the king and Prince of Wales returned 
to England. A peace being thus concluded, and the first portion 
of the stipulated sum paid, John returned to Paris. France now 
enjoyed a tranquillity which it had not experienced for some 
years, and the king had much labor to perform, in order to bring 
it to the same subjection as when he left it. However, such 
was in progress, when, unexpectedly to his barons, John returned 
to England on what he deemed business of importance with 
Edward, and such as required his personal attention. There he 
was taken ill of a fever which put an end to his life in about eight 
days. He died at London, in the Savoy, in the forty-fifth year 
of his age, and fourteenth of his reign. The body was conveyed 
to France, and interred with those of his predecessors, in the 



CHARLES THE FIFTH. 183 

Abbey of St. Denis. John had by his wife Bonne, of Bohemia, 
four sons — Charles, who succeeded him to the throne, Louis, 
Duke of Anjou, John, Duke of Berri, Philip, Duke of Bur- 
gundy, and four daughters. 

John was fond of literature, and extended his protection and 
bounty to its professors. 

He had caused a great part of the Bible and several other 
pious books, to be translated into French. Sallust, Lucan, and 
the commentaries of Caesar, were also translated during this 
reign. 



CHARLES THE FIFTH 



SURNAMED THE WISE. 



A. D. 1364.] The reign of Charles the Fifth was commenced 
amid war and tumult. 

While the new monarch repaired to Rheims to celebrate his 
coronation, his troops, under Du Guesclin, reduced the castle of 
Rouboise, which opened the communication by water between 
Rouen and the capital. Du Guesclin, with a small army of 
twelve hundred men, the front of which he extended, to make it 
appear more numerous than it was, attacked and surrounded the 
Navarrese army, took their leader prisoner, and compelled them 
to surrender. 

This battle was fought three days before the coronation of 
Charles. The rapidity with which the French pursued their 
conquests, appeared to promise a speedy termination to the war. 



184 CHARLES THE FIFTH. 

The fate of Brittany was decided soon after this. It surren- 
dered, and did homage to the king. To the intrepidity and valor 
of Du Guesdin, Charles was indebted for a succession of battles 
during his reign. There was very little cessation from fire and 
sword for the space of sixteen years. As a friend to the arts, as 
a patron of the sciences, as the promoter of many useful regula- 
tions of internal police, Charles is entitled to praise. At his death 
his treasure amounted to seventeen millions of livres. When we 
consider that, on his accession to the throne, the kingdom was 
greatly impoverished, and that this enormous sum was saved dur- 
ing a long and expensive v/ar, we may conclude that the necessity 
of consulting the happiness of the people formed no part of his 
political creed. Charles left three children: Charles, who suc- 
ceeded him to the throne, Louis, Duke of Orleans, and Cathe- 
rine, who married John of Berri, Count of Montpensiere. These 
troublesome times were unfavorable for the encouragement of 
commerce, yet it was not wholly neglected. There were several 
manufactures in France, which, had not luxury introduced a 
taste for foreign productions, might have sufficed for the con- 
sumption of the kingdom. Coarse cloths were fabricated at 
Paris, Rouen, Amiens, Tournay, Rheims, and at several other 
places. 

The mode of preparing wool, indeed, as practised in Flanders, 
was unknown ; and all the fine cloths worn by the nobility and 
gentry were brought from Brussels. Fine silks were imported 
from Italy, though silk-worms had been long introduced into the 
southern provinces of France. As Charles was fond of litera- 
ture, he extended his protection to all who cultivated the sciences. 
The taste for study, which had been encouraged by Charle- 
magne, ceased under his descendants, and was just being re- 
vived. The king had spared no expense to procure the best 
collection of books that could be had ; and as the art of printing 
was not yet invented, not only a very great expense, but great 
trouble also, must have been incurred in collecting even a small 



CHARLES THE FIFTH. 185 

library. In fact, a manuscript was a precious thing ; and often 
bequeathed as a considerable part of the succession. 

Margaret of Sicily left a breviary to her father, the King of 
Sicily. It was common to see a breviary carefully preserved in 
the churches, in an iron cage, for the convenience of priests who 
had no books of their own. It was placed in a part of the church 
where there was most light, that several priests might recite their 
office at the same time. The president Henaut says, that Charles 
may be justly considered as the true founder of the Royal Library 
at Paris. 

John had not more than twenty volumes ; but his son increased 
them to nine hundred, a collection then considered as immense. 
Under the regency of the Duke of Bedford, the nine hundred 
volumes were valued at two thousand three hundred and twenty- 
three livres. 3ome of these volumes, however, are still to be 
seen in the king's library at Paris. 

Such was the commencement of the royal library, which was 
considerably augmented by Louis the Twelfth, and Francis the 
First ; but it was principally indebted to Louis the Fourteenth 
and Fifteenth for that degree of magnificence which renders it 
one of the most extensive and valuable collections in the world. 
The art of making clocks was greatly improved during this 
reign. Charles invited to Paris a German by the name of Henry 
de Vic, who made and placed in the tower of the king's palace, 
the largest clock seen at that time. Some years after, he made 
and put up another at the cathedral of Sens. The town of 
Dijon is still in possession of a clock made at this period, 
which the Duke of Burgundy brought from Courtrai when that 
town was taken by the French, at the commencement of the 
reign of Charles the Sixth. The discovery of gunpowder is 
said to belong to Roger Bacon, a monk of the twelfth century ; 
but Barthold Schwartz, otherwise called the Black Monk, a na- 
tive of Friburg, in Germany, having put some saltpetre, sulphur 
and charcoal into a mortar, for some chemical preparation, a 
spark of fire accidentally flew into it; when the mortar was rent 



186 



CHARLES THE SIXTH. 



asunder by the sudden explosion. The monk, who escaped 
with his life, had no sooner recovered from his fright, than he 
began to make experiments, which, by moderating the effects of 
thi*^ dreadful composition, taught him how to use it as a sure 
engine of destruction. The following article appears in the ac- 
counts of the treasurer of w^ar, in the year 1338 : " To Henry 
de Faumichan, for gunpowder and other things necessary for the 
cannon, at the siege of Puy Guillaume." 

From this short sketch of the laws and customs of the French 
in the fourteenth century, it must appear that there was nothing 
in their general knowledge, in their arts, nor in their pleasures, 
worthy of imitation or regret. — But do their virtues form a just 
object of envy to their posterity? 

The recital of their actions, and the events they produced, will 
afford the best solution of the problem. 



CHARLES THE SIXTH. 



A. D. 1380.] Though the late king had, when he settled the 
business of the regency, entrusted the care of his children 
to the Dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon, the Duke of Anjou 
insisted that the government of the kingdom and the care of the 
princes should alike vest in himself. 

These pretensions were of course resisted by his brothers, and 
a civil war was on the point of breaking out, when the four dukes 
agreed to refer the matter to arbitration. Four arbiters were ac- 
cordingly appointed. 

After some deliberation, they submitted their judgment to the 





5 5 



;;;/,. (Jni^.-Zn 




CHARLES THE SIXTH. 1S7 

princes, by whom it was solemnly confirmed. The result of the 
arbitration was, that the king, though he had not attained the age 
required by the laws, should be crowned at Rheims, and take 
upon himself the government of the realm, under the guidance 
and direction of his uncles. It was further privately agreed 
between the princes, that the education of the young monarch and 
his brother should be entrusted to the Dukes of Burgundy and 
Bourbon, who were appointed superintendents of the royal house- 
hold ; and that the Duke of Anjou should keep the regency till 
the coronation of the king. 

This last prince was induced to withdraw those ambitious 
claims which he first advanced, on being permitted to appropriate 
to his own use all the furniture, plate, and jewels belonging to his 
deceased brother, except such as were immediately necessary for 
his son and successor. 

A private fund was set apart for the support of the young 
princes, arising from the revenues of particular provinces ; and 
the remainder of the public revenue, after all expenses had been 
paid, was to be placed in the royal treasury, there to remain till 
the king should have attained the age of majority, and hence have 
acquired the right to dispose of it. 

Meanwhile the necessary preparations for the coronation were 
carried on ; and the court were actually on the road to Rheims, 
when the apparent calm that subsisted between the princes was 
suddenly interrupted. The seizure of the treasure, the furniture, 
plate and jewels of the late king, had not satisfied the avidity of 
the Duke of Anjou. Informed by the ofiacers of the guard that 
Charles had deposited a treasure in the castle of Melun, he ques- 
tioned Philip de Savoisy, one of his chamberlains, on the subject ; 
and that nobleman, eluding his questions, and despising his threats, 
the reo-ent sent for the executioner, who was ordered to put him 
instantly to death, unless he revealed the secret. By this means 
he discovered the object of his search, consisting of a quantity of 
ingots of gold and silver, which Charles had carefully concealed 
in the walls, and which his brother now carried off. The com- 



CHARLES THE SIXTH. 

motion occasioned by the conduct of the regent, delayed the 
coronation for some time ; but finally the ceremony was per- 
formed at Rheims, in the presence of the king's uncles, and 
most of the principal nobility of France. At the banquet, which 
succeeded the coronation, the dishes were placed on the table, 
and the guests waited on by Oliver de Clisson, and other nobles 
arrayed in cloth of gold. On the return of the count to the 
capital, the Duke of Anjou ordered all taxes and imposts to be 
collected without delay. This news immediately spread through 
the city ; and the people flying to arms, swore that they would 
massacre all who should make the attempt. Next day the col- 
lectors went to market, when one of them, having demanded pay- 
ment of a poor woman, was instantly seized by the populace and 
torn to pieces. This was a signal for revolt. 

The streets were presently filled with insurgents, and the cry of 
''''To arms!'''' ^^ Liberty P^ was heard from either extremity of 
the metropolis. The collectors and other officers of the revenue 
were all put to death wherever they were found. 

The number of insurgents hourly increasing, they burst open 
the doors of the townhouse, where a large supply of arms had 
been deposited in the preceding reigns, and proceeded to pillage 
and demolish the houses of those whom they had murdered. 

The doors of the prisons being forced, the insurgents gained a 
fresh accession of strength, by the junction of the inhabitants. 
Perceiving they wanted a chief, they released Hugh Aubriot from 
confinement, and compelled him to place himself at their head. 

They mounted him on a mule, and conducted him to the house 
which he had previously occupied. 

He took advantage of this event to retire secretly from the 
capital, which he left that night ; and, passing the Seine, fled to 
Burgundy, his native country, where he passed the rest of his 
days in tranquil obscurity. The nev/s of this revolt having 
reached Rouen, where the king still resided, the council deter- 
mined on sending commissioners to attempt an accommodation. 

In this they succeeded ; the riots were quelled, and a general 



CHARLES THE SIXTH. 189 

amnesty was passed. It was then agreed that the city should pre- 
sent to the king one hundred thousand livres. The day after this 
agreement was signed, the young monarch made his entry into 
Paris, amidst the acclamations of the people. The unpopularity 
of the Duke of Anjou during the regency of Charles, led the 
kingdom into a war with almost every neighboring province. 
When Charles entered on the duties of his station, he found the 
finances in dreadful disorder. The royal household, instead of 
the splendor of royalty, exhibited an appearance of want. 

About this time the king undertook a journey to Avignon, to 
confer with Clement, who exhorted him to profit by the troubles 
which prevailed in Italy, to secure to Louis of Anjou the crown 
of Naples. The pontiff received the king with the honors due 
to his rank, and was prodigal in such favors as were best fitted to 
please Charles and his court. Two days after the arrival of 
Charles, Louis of Anjou received the crown of Naples and Sicily 
from the hands of his holiness. 

Shortly after the return of the king to Paris, his court began 
to discover signs of approaching insanity, and caused him to pro- 
vide for the safety of the kingdom, in case of his death. The 
king settled the guardianship of his children, which was entrusted 
to the queen, the Dukes of Berri, Burgundy, and Bourbon ; if the 
queen contracted a second marriage after the king's death, she 
was to forfeit her right to the guardianship. 

The king was conveyed from one country seat to another in 
the hope that the change of air might produce what the faculty 
had failed to effect. But his mind had lost its force; and at those 
lucid intervals which sometimes occurred, he was sensible that 
he never could wield the sceptre of the French nation again with 
any hope of success. For nearly thirty years Charles could be 
considered only as the phantom of sovereignty, successively in the 
possession of different ministers, who prostituted his name to sanc- 
tion the violence of the great, and the oppression of the people. 

Charles the Sixth finished, at this period, a life of misfortune, 
having survived Henry of England, who married his daughter, 



J90 CHARLES THE SEVENTH. 

only fifty-one days. His death was occasioned by a violent 
fever brought on by the paroxysms of his disease. 

He left Charles, his eldest son, in the nineteenth year of his 
age ; Henry, only nine months old, and one daughter, the queen of 
Henry of England. Charles died in the fifty-fourth year of his 
age and forty-second of his reign. 



CHAELES THE SEVENTH. 



A. D. 1442.] Charles the Seventh was at the castle of Espally 
when he heard of his father's death. 

So much of France being in possession of the English at this 
time, it was with difficulty that Charles could be roused to a 
sense of those active duties which his situation demanded. At 
this period they were masters of Normandy, the Isle of France, 
Brie, Champagne, Picardy, Ponthieu, the Boulenois, the town and 
district of Calais, and the greater part of Aquitaine; while, from 
their alliance with the Duke of Burgundy, they secured the duchy 
whence he derived his title. Charles was confined to the provinces 
of Languedoc, Dauphine and Auvergne, the Bourbonnois, Berry, 
Poitou, Saintonge, Touraine, and the Orleannois, with Paris and a 
part of Anjou and Maine. The commencement of this reign was 
highly unfavorable to the new monarch. The Enghsh, at this 
time considering themselves masters of two-thirds of France, were 
anxious to prosecute the war into the small part now occupied by 
Charles. Accordingly efforts were made, and the EngUsh by 
superiority of numbers were almost everywhere successful: town 
after town fell into their possession. At Don-Remy, near the 



CHARLES THE SEVENTH. 191 

banks of the Maese, which divides Champagne from Loraine, a 
village belonging to France, lived a country girl of seventeen, 
called Joan d'Arc. Joan had been taught to hold in detestation 
the English name ; and the ravages of war, which she saw ex- 
tending even to her father's cottage, increased this abhorrence. 

The expulsion of the enemy from her native land, and the 
triumph of the lawful sovereign, she justly regarded as the only 
means of correcting the evils which desolated the kingdom. Her 
zeal increased with her years ; her manners were irreproachable. 
Several years had elapsed, when she presented herself to Baudri- 
court, governor of Vaucouleurs, a town in the neighborhood. 

She flattered herself that he could supply her with arms, and an 
escort to enable her to repair to court : but Baudricourt dismissed 
her with contempt. Some time elapsed when she again visited him. 
The governor, believing her bewitched, wished to have her exor- 
cised by the curate of the parish. She maintained, however, the 
truth of her mission ; and assured him that the royalists had that 
day sustained a defeat near Orleans. The account of the battle 
of the Herrings, which arrived soon after, staggered the governor. 
Joan's revelations thenceforth met v/ith general credit, and she 
was regarded as a preternatural instrument of Providence. Hav- 
ing surmounted this difficulty, she was furnished with a suit of 
armor; and two gentlemen, with their servants, were appointed to 
accompany her to court. 

She arrived at Chinon, where Charles was then residing, and 
after some delay was admitted to the royal presence. Though 
Charles, for the purpose, divested himself of every ensign of 
royalty, she distinguished him from all his courtiers without 
hesitation, and addressed herself immediately to him. She pro- 
mised to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct him to be crowned 
at Rheims. The energy with which she expressed herself made 
converts of all who heard her. Charles, who could lose nothing 
by the experiment, resolved to try what effect her presence would 
have on the drooping spirits of his troops. This resolution was 
no sooner adopted than reports were industriously circulated that 



192 CHARLES THE SEVENTH. 

she had revealed a secret to the king which, being only known to 
himself, must certainly have been discovered to her by heavenly 
inspiration. The troops glowed with impatience to retrieve their 
honor under the auspices of this female champion. 

As soon as the nation was duly prepared for her reception, she 
assumed the habit of a man, was armed cap-a-pie, mounted on a 
stately courser, and exhibited to the people. When a sword was 
offered her she desired that somebody might be sent to the church 
of St. Catherine de Fierbois, for a particular sword, which would 
be found on a tomb behind the great altar. Her request was 
complied with, and the weapon was found and brought to her. 

When the news of her approach reached the English camp, 
the soldiers, infected with the general contagion, were seized with 
a secret horror: nor could they derive either courage or consola- 
tion from the persuasions of their leaders, who assured them that 
the maid, far from being the vicegerent of Heaven, was a mere 
engine of the devil. 

She employed the few days before her march upon Orleans in 
exhorting the troops to place all their hopes in the assistance of 
Heaven. Her native eloquence, her fervent piety, forced incre- 
dulity itself to believe, and converted the most hardened hearts. 
The effects of her exhortations and example were universally felt. 
People saw with admiration a girl of seventeen, who could neither 
read nor write, performing at once the opposite functions of a 
general and a missionary. 

She assembled all the priests in the town, and having formed 
them into a battalion, placed them at the head of the troops, as 
they marched out of Blois, preceded by a banner decorated with a 
cross. The air resounded with hymns, which the soldiers sang 
aloud. 

The troops became as enthusiastic as their leader; they marched 
forward with unusual confidence, impressed with the conviction 
that their efforts must be crowned with victory, and that they 
were favored with the most sublime revelations. The convoy 
approached Orleans on the 29th of April, and, after a faint and 



CHARLES THE SEVENTH. 193 

spiritless resistance by the English, whose troops were unmanned 
by their superstitious fears, was conveyed into the city without 
loss. 

Joan, previous to her departure from Blois, had sent, by a herald, 
a letter addressed to the King of England, the Duke of Bedford, 
and to the generals who commanded the siege, in which she 
summoned the English to leave Orleans, and restore the kingdom 
to the lawful sovereign. On the fourth of May, the French, 
under the command of Joan, made a sally and attacked one of 
the English forts, which after some resistance was carried. A 
few days after two other forts were reduced. In these different 
assaults, Joan was always the foremost, with her standard in her 
hand, displaying the coolness and intrepidity of a hero. Her 
courage was of a superior kind, as she had extreme repugnance 
to the effusion of human blood, and never killed any one. The 
enemy, having abandoned one of their forts, and retired to ano- 
ther, were followed by Joan and her soldiers, and were obliged 
to retire. 

The English had now but one fort remaining in their hands. 
On this post, the most important of all, the success of the siege 
depended. The attack was deferred till the next day. 

Accordingly on the following day Joan, with the standard in her 
hand, animating the soldiers, appeared before the fort. The Eng- 
lish, struck with terror, quitted the entrenchment, and ran for refuge 
to the drawbridge to cross the Loire, when by some accident most 
of them were drowned, and the remainder surrendered. Thus 
was the first object of Joan's extraordinary mission accomplished, 
a mission the divinity of which not the most incredulous of the 
French could now dare to dispute. This event is still celebrated 
at Orleans, on the eighth of May, when public thanksgivings are 
offered up in the cathedral, and an eulogy is pronounced on the 
deliverer of the city. Joan, now having possession of Orleans, 
proposed to march toward Rheims, and attack the different towns 
between the two places. 

This was commenced, and no less than six cities and towns 
13 



194 CHARLES THE SEVENTH. 

surrendered, which brought her and her fortunate army to the 
walls of Rheims. This accomplished, the citizens sent deputies 
to Joan to request that she would favor them with her presence. 
The gates of the city were thrown open and Joan conducted her 
sovereign (according to her promise) into the city of Rheims, 
where the ceremony of his coronation was performed with great 
solemnity. As soon as it was finished, the Maid of Orleans, who 
had stood near his person in complete armor, with her sacred 
banner in her hand, fell at his feet, and embracing his knees, with 
tears of joy entreated his permission to return home, the two 
grand objects of her mission being completed. But the period 
was not far distant when the Maid of Orleans was doomed to 
become the victim of a barbarous age. The conspicuous part 
which this heroine played in the transactions of the present reign ; 
the celebrity which she justly acquired by the extent and import- 
ance of her services ; her courage, her character, her virtues, her 
misfortunes — all combine to render her an object highly interest- 
ing to the reader, and to justify the historian in paying due honor 
to her memory, by unveiling the iniquity of her persecutors, and 
the wicked means used for the destruction of a girl of eighteen, 
whose only crime was the attempt to restore her sovereign to the 
throne of his ancestors, and to rescue her country from oppres- 
sion. At the battle of Compeigne, Joan was taken prisoner, by 
the treachery of Flavy, governor of that city, who was bribed by 
the enemy to deliver the Maid of Orleans into their hands. This 
was done, and Joan, in less than one month, was destined to end 
her life at the stake. She stood with a crucifix in her hand amidst 
the burning pile, uttering with her last breath the name of Jesus. 
When her body was consumed, the Cardinal of Winchester or- 
dered her ashes to be collected, and thrown into the Seine. 

That rapid succession of events which continued from the com- 
mencement to the conclusion of his reign, had scarcely permitted 
Charles to enjoy an instant of repose. Incessantly obliged to 
struggle with adversity ; equally harassed by the persecutions of 
his enemies and by those of his own family ; continually thwarted 



LOUIS THE ELEVENTH. I95 

in his designs ; often reduced to extremities the most cruel and 
distressing, by the misconduct of a reckless son, the period of 
his dissolution was greatly accelerated. 

He died at Meun-sur-Yevre, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, 
and the thirty-ninth of an unhappy reign. 



LOUIS THE ELEVENTH. 



A. D. 1461.] Louis was at Geneppe, when he received the 
news of his father's death, and the intelligence is said to have 
inspired him with a joy he could not conceal. On the day of 
the coronation, immediately after dinner, the Duke of Burgundy 
knelt to the king, and conjured him, by the sacred ties of religion 
and humanity, to pardon all those who, in the preceding reign, 
had been so unfortunate as to incur his displeasure, and to con- 
tinue in their different posts such officers as had served the king 
his father with fidelity. 

Louis was too intent on the gratification of his resentment to 
comply with a request that interfered with his projects of re- 
venge. 

When Louis made his public entry into Paris, where he was 
received with every demonstration of joy, respect and loyalty, 
two children, representing angels, descended and placed a crown 
on his head. After the usual ceremonies were finished, the king 
repaired to the Hotel Des Tournelles, where he established his 
residence. In 1463, Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry the 
Sixth of England, embarked for the continent to solicit succors 
and assistance from her foreign connections. 



jgg LOUIS THE ELEVENTH. 

^She paid a visit to the king at Chinon, who expressed the 
greatest concern for her misfortunes. 

During her residence at the French court, she stood godmother 
to the only son of Charles, Duke of Orleans, by Mary of Cleves, 
his third wife. The king was the godfather, and he gave his own 
name to the young prince, v/ho afterwards ascended the throne 
of France, under the appellation of Louis the Twelfth. But 
notwithstanding the professions of friendship which the king 
made to Margaret, all he could be persuaded to grant to her ear- 
nest solicitations, were a loan of twenty thousand livres, and a 
supply of two thousand troops, under the command of Breze, 
seneschal of Normandy, who is said to have entertained for the 
queen more tender sentiments than pity and compassion. 

For this the interested monarch made her sign, in her husband's 
name, a truce for one hundred years, and a promise to restore the 
city of Calais. 

Margaret embarked for England, but the defeat of the royalists 
at the battle of Hexham, caused her with her son to return to 
France and take up her residence under the protection of her 
brother, the Duke of Calabria, in Lorraine. 

Twenty-two years of the reign of Louis were passed in broils 
and tumults among his neighbors ; campaign after campaign fol- 
lowed in quick succession ; but in few was he successful. Fre- 
quently had he to sue for terms. Having found that his health 
declined apace, he paid a visit to his son, whom he had kept 
almost in a state of captivity at the castle of Amboise, where — 
except the officers of the household — none were permitted to 
approach him but servants and persons of the meanest condition. 

Louis, in the presence of the nobles who accompanied him, 
thus addressed his son :— " My son, I know not what term the 
Supreme Being has prescribed to the duration of my existence ; 
but age and habitual infirmities warn me it is time to prepare for 
my last hour. Both my own wishes and the laws of the realm 
designate you for my successor. Learn, then, the full extent of 
the obligations which that title imposes. You are destined to 



CHARLES THE EIGHTH. 1^7 

ascend the first throne in the world, and to bear the appellation 
of Most Christian King. For that rank, and for that august pre- 
rogative, you are indebted to your ancestors, who, by their valor 
and their zeal in the cause of religion, have exalted themselves 
above all the princes in Christendom." 

As Louis approached nearer the grave, he anxiously employed 
himself in laying plans for what he intended the happiness of the 
kingdom. 

Having complied with all the forms required by the Catholic 
religion, he died in the sixtieth year of his age, and the twenty- 
second of his reign. He was interred at the church of Notre-Dame 
at Cleri. 



AELES THE EIGHTH. 



A. D. 1483.] Charles, either from the delicacy of his consti- 
tution, or from motives of jealousy, had been deprived of all the 
advantages of education. The orders of his father to prevent his 
application to study, had been so rigorously enforced, that, on 
his accession to the throne, he could neither read nor write. — 
Ashamed of his ignorance, the youthful monarch no sooner be- 
came his own master, than he pursued his studies with inde- 
fatigable zeal ; he even acquired a taste for books, and engaged 
Robert Gaguin, general of the Mathurins, to translate for his use 
the commentaries of Caesar, and the life of Charlemagne. It 
was easy to perceive, from the admiration which he betrayed on 
perusing the account of the martial achievements of those heroes, 
that a thirst for military glory formed one of the leading features 



,98 CHARLES THE EIGHTH. 

of his mind. But his utmost efforts proved inadequate to sup- 
ply, in a full degree, the want of an early education. He always 
retained an invincible repugnance to business ; displayed a want 
of penetration in his choice of ministers, and abandoned him- 
self without reserve to his favorites, who too often abused his 
confidence : but with these failings, Charles was frank, generous 
and magnanimous; and ''so good'" — says Philip de Comines — 
" that a better creature never existed!'' Although by the laws 
of the realm Charles was of age to assume the reins of govern- 
ment, since he had just entered his fourteenth year, yet it was 
not deemed prudent to entrust them to such feeble hands. Louis, 
therefore, had ordained by his will that the administration should 
be vested in his eldest daughter, Anne of France, wife to Peter de 
Bourbon, Lord of Beaujeu. The king had been influenced in his 
choice by the consideration that the princes of the blood would not 
think themselves degraded in being subjected to a princess, who, 
by her birth, was placed above them ; that Anne, moreover, could 
have no interest in defrauding the lawful heir of his right, since 
her sex precluded her from wearing the crown herself, and her 
husband could have no possible claim to it; and, lastly, that if, not- 
withstanding all the precautions he had taken, civil commotions 
should arise, nobody was better calculated for quelling them than 
herself. 

In fact, all the historians of that age concur in describing her as 
possessed of profound genius, a strong mind, and all the graces pe- 
culiar to her sex, combined with all the virtues that characterize the 
greatest of the other sex. Madame — for by that appellation was 
the eldest daughter of the king ever distinguished — now repaired 
to court, followed by a powerful party, on whom were bestowed 
the honors and rewards belonging to the government. She began 
by confirming the judges and other magistrates in the possession 
of their respective posts ; and then directed her attention to the 
means of affording relief to the people. But before she dimin- 
ished the receipts, she wisely took care to lessen the expenses. 
The six thousand Swiss that had been taken into pay, by Louis 



CHARLES THE EIGHTH. 199 

the Eleventh, she prudently dismissed, and, after paying all that 
was due to them, sent them back in an honorable manner to their 
own country. She likewise disbanded several expensive compa- 
nies of national troops. 

By the adoption of these salutary measures, Madame was en- 
abled to relieve the people, by remitting the last quarter of the 
taxes of the present year. At the same time, she promised them 
a more considerable diminution, when proper regulations could be 
made for that purpose. Louis having, on mere suspicion, sentenced 
a great number of persons to imprisonment or exile, his daughter 
ordered the prison doors to be thrown open, recalled those who 
had been banished, and bestowed favors on such as her father had 
persecuted with the greatest inveteracy. 

Charles the Eighth having now arrived at years of maturity 
to wield the reins of government, Madame withdrew from the 
guardianship which she had conducted with honor to herself, and 
great good to the country. Nothing of great importance occurred 
during the reign of Charles. Henry the Seventh of England 
landed at Calais, with twenty-five thousand men, but Charles 
averted all symptoms of war by paying large sums of money, the 
arrears of pension due Edward the Fourth and claimed by Henry. 
A treaty of peace was also concluded with the King of Spain, who 
had threatened to invade France. 

Alphonso the Second, King of Naples, at this time abdicated 
the throne in favor of his son Ferdinand, and retired to a convent. 
This gave great offence to the Neapolitan nobles, who were on the 
eve of a revolution, and the aid of Charles was solicited. The 
town of Aversa, situated midway between Capua and Naples, 
sent a deputation to Charles. The capital itself was in commo- 
tion. Charles advanced to Aversa where he met a deputation 
from the citizens of Naples, who sent him the keys of the city, 
and in a few days he made his triumphal entry into that capital, 
amidst the acclamation of its inhabitants. An assembly was con- 
vened at which Charles was present, and an amicable adjustment 
of matters allowed him to return to his kingdom. During his 



200 CHARLES THE EIGHTH. 

Stay in Italy, Charles had contracted a taste for architecture, and 
on his return, he gave orders for the construction at Amboise, the 
place of his birth, of a more magnificent edifice than any which 
had yet been seen in France. He meant to adorn this palace with 
a variety of costly furniture, statues and pictures, which he had 
brought from Italy ; and that the building might correspond with 
the richness of the embellishments, he had the precaution to attach 
to his service the most skillful architects and the most celebrated 
painters he could meet with during his expedition. From a gal- 
lery in this castle, he was observing a game of tennis that was 
playing in the grounds below. Desirous that the queen might 
partake of the amusement, he went to her chamber, and conducted 
her to the gallery; but in passing through a door, he struck his 
head with violence against the top, which was very low. He felt, 
however, no immediate consequence from the accident ; but, after 
remaining some time in the gallery, he suddenly fell senseless to 
the ground. The attendants, alarmed at his danger, laid him on a 
couch which stood near. Thrice he recovered his voice, and as 
quickly lost it again. He expired the same night in the twenty- 
eighth year of his age and fifteenth of his reign. The amiable 
qualities of Charles had acquired him the surname oi the Affable; 
and his loss was deeply regretted by all ranks of the people. 
With Charles ended the line of Valois. 



5 7 





]Vl.O,/,,.-</,v..' 




LOUIS THE TWELFTH. 



, A. D. 1498.] With Louis the Twelfth commenced the Orleans 
race. Charles dying without issue, the crown descended to Louis, 
Duke of Orleans, his cousin, grandson to the Duke of Orleans, 
who was assassinated at the instigation of John, Duke of Bur- 
gundy. 

The new monarch was in his thirty-sixth year, and had con- 
sequently attained to a maturity of vigor both of body and mind. 
He had also received some salutary lessons in the severe school 
of adversity ; and his misfortunes, with the reflections they occa- 
sioned, had produced a wholesome change in his disposition, by 
teaching him to restrain the sallies of passion, and to submit the 
suggestions of enthusiasm to the dictates of reason. Louis the 
Twelfth was crowned at Rheims, and on the following day made 
his public entry into Paris. Immediately after his accession to 
the throne, he rewarded the zeal and fidelity of George d'Am- 
boise, Archbishop of Rouen, who had alike shared with him the 
smiles and the frowns of fortune, by raising him to the dignity of 
prime minister ; and never did a favorite better deserve the con- 
fidence of his sovereign. 

This prince had been compelled at an early age, and against 
his will, to marry Jane, the youngest daughter of Louis the 
Eleventh, a princess of amiable disposition, but very deformed 
in person ; and having never lived with her, Pope Alexander the 
Sixth pronounced the marriage null and invaUd. Jane submitted 
with pious resignation to a sentence which deprived her of a 
crown, and only expressed her wish to be enabled to reward her 
domestics, and to relieve the poor. The king accordingly as- 



202 LOUIS THE TWELFTH. 

signed her the revenues of the province of Berri for her support, 
and retiring to a nunnery which she founded at Bourges, the 
capital of that province, she took the veil, and closed a life of 
humble virtue. 

On the decease of Charles the Eighth, Anne of Brittany retired 
into her own hereditary dominions, and maintained the rights of 
an independent sovereign. The articles of her marriage with the 
late king precluded her from disposing of her hand, in case of his 
death without male issue, to the prejudice of the state ; but a 
stipulation, in which state policy was opposed to natural rights, 
was deemed equivocal, and prudence warned Louis to secure the 
important acquisition of Brittany by measures the most effectual. 
She refused, however, to accede to the proposals of Louis, till 
that monarch had consented, that in case she should die without 
children, her duchy should revert to the heirs of her house ; and 
that her marriage should be celebrated at the city of Nantz. 

The ceremony was accordingly performed in that city, in Janu- 
ary, 1499, whence the king conducted her to Paris. The king 
now confirmed the treaties with all the neighboring powers. 
Those which had been concluded with the republics of Venice 
and Florence were renewed. The Pope was secured in the in- 
terest of France ; the peace with England was confirmed ; Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella withdrew their troops from Italy; the archduke 
Philip did homage to the king at Arras : but his father, Maxi- 
milian, was more difficult to treat with. The king repaired to 
Lyons, and dispatched his army into Italy, under the command 
of Louis of Luxembourg, Count of Ligni. The Venetians, at the 
same time, advanced their troops to the banks of the Adda, and 
took possession of all the territory which the king had ceded to 
them between the rivers Adda and Serio. The inhabitants of 
Milan exhibited symptoms of revolt, but the French entered the 
Milanese, and reduced and sacked, after a vigorous resistance, 
all the towns between Milan and the Loire. Louis, who had 
remained at Lyons, was no sooner informed of the success of 
his troops, than he hastened across the Alps, entered the capital 



LOUIS THE TWELFTH. 203 

of his new dominions, clad in the ducal robes ; and, during the 
three months that he remained there, by the advice of Cardinal 
d'Amboise, he employed himself in recalling those who had been 
banished by Sforza, in remitting a fourth of the imposts, in estab- 
lishing a court of justice, and in assiduous endeavors to ingratiate 
himself with the inhabitants of Milan. During the reign of Louis 
several incursions were made by the Spaniards, but they were 
hastily repulsed ; by the Swiss, also, who entered the territories of 
Burgundy, but were glad to return, though with considerable loss. 
The queen died at this time, regretted by the nation, and deeply 
lamented by the king, by whom she was tenderly loved. Louis, 
still grieving for the loss of Anne, his late queen, had no incHna- 
tion to marry again ; but the account he received of the charms 
of Mary, Princess of England, joined to his desire of promot- 
ing the happiness of his people, by the restoration of peace, was 
a motive too strong to be resisted, and he accordingly gave 
Longueville full powers for negotiating the treaty. The articles 
were easily adjusted between the two monarchs. Louis agreed 
that Tournay should remain in the hands of the English ; that 
Henry should be paid six hundred thousand crowns ; that Prin- 
cess Mary should bring four hundred thousand crowns as her 
portion, and enjoy as large a jointure as any Queen of France, 
even the last who was heiress of Brittany. The two princes also 
agreed on succors with which they should mutually supply each 
other, in case either of them were attacked by an enemy. 

Mary was sent over to France with a splendid retinue, and 
Louis met her at Abbeville, where the nuptials were celebrated. 
This marriage diffused an universal joy throughout the king- 
dom, and the court became one scene of festivity and pleasure. 
Louis was enchanted with the beauty, grace and numerous ac- 
complishments of his youthful consort, but, alas ! how transitory 
are earthly joys ! In less than one year after the happy mar- 
riage, he was seized with a dysentery which caused his death in 
four days. He died at the palace of Tournelles, in Paris, in the 
fifty-fourth year of his age and the seventeenth of his reign. 



204 FRANCIS THE FIRST. 

Louis the Twelfth had, by his consort, Aniie of Brittany, widow 
of Charles the Eighth, two sons, who died in their infancy, and 
two daughters : Claude, married to Francis the First, and Renee, 
who espoused the Duke of Ferrara. 

The superior integrity of Louis, in an age when most of the 
European princes were actuated by a spirit of perfidy, and made 
interest the grand object of their pursuits and the sole rule of 
their conduct, merits the highest commendations which the pen 
of the historian can bestow. A professed enemy to falsehood 
and equivocation, he punished with severity every deviation from 
truth. He died universally lamented by his subjects, who had 
bestov/ed on him the honorable appellation of The Father of his 
People. 



FEANCIS THE FIRST. 

A. D. 1515.] With Louis the Twelfth expired the elder branch 
of the house of Orleans, and the sceptre of France was transferred 
to that of Angouleme. 

Francis the First succeeded his great uncle Louis, without op- 
position or difGcuity. The order of succession was firmly estab- 
lished ; and this was the third time, since the accession of the 
monarchs of the Capetian race, that the crown, in default of heirs 
male, had passed to a collateral branch. 

The coronation of Francis was performed at Rheims, amidst 
the acclamations of a people, whose affections his external en- 
dowments and popular manners were well calculated to acquire. 
But the adulation he received had a fatal effect on his conduct, 



FRANCIS THE FIRST. 205 

by inflating his pride and flattering his ambition. After regulat- 
ing the internal administration of his kingdom, Francis turned his 
attention to foreign affairs. His first care was to renew the 
treaty of peace which his predecessor had concluded with Henry 
the Eighth of England. He received homage from the Count of 
Nassau, in the name of his master, the Archduke Charles ; from 
the counties of Flanders, Artois, and Charolois. During these 
transactions the attention of Francis was called to the innova- 
tions made by the Swiss, who had entered Savoy, and secured 
all the passages of the Alps, Being privately directed by a 
peasant who inhabited the mountains, to a secret path, which 
was left unguarded, because believed to be impracticable, the 
French descended the Alps into the marquisate of Saluzzo, and 
Bayard, and after a sharp engagement were victorious. History 
affords scarcely any example of a battle disputed with greater ob- 
stinacy than that of Marignano, It began about four in the after- 
noon, and lasted more than three hours after the night closed ; M^hen 
lassitude and darkness separated the combatants without abating 
their animosity. 

Francis, who passed the night completely armed, on the car- 
riage of a cannon, was surprised to find himself, at the dawn of 
day, within a few paces of the enemy, who renewed the charge 
with renovated vigor. 

At the end of seven hours' hard fighting, Francis found himself 
master of the field, which was strewed with the bodies of ten 
thousand Swiss, and from three to four thousand of the French, 
among whom were many of the nobility. The reign of Francis 
may be termed an unsettled reign, for the King of Spain more 
than once made irruptions into his territories, but each time was 
repulsed with considerable loss. 

The death of his son Charles, Duke of Orleans, impressed 
Francis with a grief which nothing could mitigate. 

The remaining hours of his life were embittered by a slow 
fever continually preying upon him. He wandered from one 
palace to another in a state of languor and depression, and, at 



206 



FRANCIS THE FIRST. 



length expired at Rarabouillet, in the fifty-third year of his age 
and the thirty-second of his reign. Francis had by his first wife, 
Claude of France, daughter of Louis the Twelfth ; Francis, who 
died two years before his father ; Henry, who succeeded him on 
the throne ; Charles, Duke of Orleans, who also died young, and 
Louisa Charlotte, who married James the Fifth of Scodand. 

Francis, who was a great patron of the sciences, had formed a 
plan for the erection of a college for the study of dead languages ; 
but he did not live to put it in execution. He established, however, 
salaries for professors of Greek, Hebrew and Latin, medicine 
and surgery. A mathematical professor was also established 
during his reign; and the study of natural philosophy began to 
be cultivated with diligence and success. From the year 1528 to 
1534, perpetual sufnmer prevailed in France. During four years 
not two days' frost was experienced. Nature, exhausted by a con- 
tinual heat, incessandy produced blossoms, but had not strength 
to bring the fruit to maturity. A scarcity of provisions was the 
consequence of this phenomenon ; the harvest was scarcely suffi- 
cient to supply seed for the following year. Insects of every 
kind multiplied ad infinitum, and destroyed the little fruit which 
the earth yielded. A dreadful famine prevailed, and the con- 
sumption of unwholesome food gave rise to a disorder which 
carried off one-fourth of the inhabitants of France. 



HENEY THE SECOND. 



A. D. 1547.] Henry the Second completed his twenty-ninth 
year the day on which he succeeded to the throne. He was 
possessed of full vigor both of body and mind : handsome in his 
person, but awkward in his manners and address ; accomplished 
in all the martial exercises of the age, but averse to business, and 
every pursuit which required study and attention. As soon as 
Henry was crowned, his attention was drawn to the affairs of 
Spain. Threats bad reached his ears, and, anxious for peace with 
all his neighbors, he listened to the expedient employed by his 
secretary of state, Montmorenci, for the conclusion of peace. 
Montmorenci negotiated two treaties of marriage — one between 
Elizabeth, Henry's eldest daughter, and Philip of Spain; the other, 
between Margaret, Henry's only sister, and the Duke of Savoy. 
Henry having, by this means, secured an honorable establish- 
ment for his sister and his daughter, granted, in consideration of 
these marriages, terms both to Phihp and the Duke of Savoy, of 
which he would not, on any other account, have ventured to ap- 
prove. The principal articles in the treaty between Henry and 
Philip were, that a sincere and perpetual amity should be estab- 
lished between the two crowns and their respective allies ; that the 
two monarchs should labor in concert to procure the convocation 
of a general council, in order to check the progress of heresy, and 
restore unity and concord to the Christian church ; and that all the 
conquests made by either party on this side of the Alps, since the 
commencement of the war in 1531, should be mutually restored. 
Thus, by this famous treaty, peace was re-established in Europe. 

All the causes of discord, which had so long embroiled the 



208 HENRY THE SECOND. 

powerful monarchs of France and Spain, seemed to be wholly 
removed or finally terminated. The greatest rejoicings and fes- 
tivities took place on the occasion of these marriages. A grand 
tournament was held in the Rue Saint Antoine, at which the 
king bore away the palm of victory. But as he was retiring 
from the circle, he perceived two lances, at one end of the lists, 
which were unbroken. One of these he took himself, and the 
other he sent to Montgomery, the captain of his guards, a man 
eminently skilled in all martial exercises, inviting him to break 
it with his sovereign in honor of the ladies. 

Montgomery hesitated for some time, and even twice refused to 
obey the summons. The Queens of Scodand and France too, who 
were present, sent to entreat the king to content himself with the 
glory he had already acquired, and to run no further risk. Henry, 
however, persisted, and at length sent a positive order to Mont- 
gomery to prepare for the assault. He obeyed : the attack was 
violent ; their lances were shivered in pieces ; but the king's 
mask, having been deranged by the shock, one of the broken 
pieces of his adversary's lance pierced his forehead, just above 
the left eye, and he fell senseless to the ground. He was im- 
mediately conveyed to his palace, and the surgeons, after examin- 
ing the wound, declared it not incurable, though dangerous ; but 
an abscess having unexpectedly formed in the head, their utmost 
skill proved ineffectual, and Henry expired in the forty-first year 
of his age, and the twelfth year of his reign. The character of this 
monarch may be traced in a few words. In his disposition he 
had more of the warrior than the statesman. Active and intrepid, 
he was better formed for obedience than command. A culpable 
facility of temper subjected him to perpetual imposition, and be- 
trayed him into situations by which he was not only degraded as 
a monarch, but disgraced as a man. Henry married Catharine 
de Medicis, by whom he had seven children. Francis, the eldest, 
succeeded his father to the throne. 



FEANCIS THE SECOND. 



A. D. 1559.] Henry was succeeded by his son Francis the 
Second, who, though the eldest of seven children, had but just 
entered his sixteenth year, when he was called to the throne. 
His education had been neglected, not from inattention or design, 
but from necessity; for frequent sickness and habitual languor 
rendered him totally unfit for mental exertion, and for those 
martial exercises which the times required of the kings of France. 
Francis was crowned at Rheims by the Cardinal of Lorraine. 

The debility of the king was observed to be on the increase. 
He was advised by his physicians to repair to Blois, where the air 
was more salubrious and temperate than at Paris, and there pre- 
pare himself by moderate exercise for the use of the aromatic 
baths. Some evil designing person, apprised of his intentions, 
had spread a report that the king was afflicted with the leprosy, 
and that the only remedy which could be of service to him was to 
bathe in the blood of young children. A number of emissaries 
had visited all the villages within twenty leagues of Blois ; and 
while some, without entering into any explanation, took an exact 
list of the most healthy and beautiful children, others, who followed 
them at some distance, revealed the secret, and promised parents, 
for a trifling reward, to procure the erasure of their children's 
names from the fatal list. By this abominable manoeuvre, the re- 
port, absurd as it was, obtained such credit with the common peo- 
ple that, instead of the acclamations of joy with which they were 
wont to hail their sovereign, alarm, sorrow and desolation marked 
the progress of the court. Most of the towns and villages were 
abandoned, while such as had courage to remain in their houses, 
14 



210 FRANCIS THE SECOND. 

had strongly barricaded the doors, and did not even dare to look 
through the windows. Troops of peasants, carrying off their chil- 
dren, were seen in the fields at a distance from the high-roads ; 
and when pursued, they fell on their knees, and in the most piteous 
accents implored mercy for their children. 

The king, at this unusual spectacle, burst into tears, and insisted 
with so much eagerness on knowing the cause of it, that his attend- 
ants were under the necessity of telling him the truth. He endea- 
vored to dispel the fears of the wretched fugitives, and ordered 
the strictest search to be made after the authors of such an infa- 
mous report ; but they had all disappeared except one, who was 
apprehended at Loches. This man, when applied to the rack, had 
the audacity to maintain that he had only acted in obedience to 
the orders of Cardinal Lorraine. During this short reign, Cas- 
tlenau, Raunai, and Mazeres, were executed for having laid plots 
against the government. The Guises, seconded by Catharine of 
Medicis, had taken a dislike to the Prince of Conde, who, she 
thought, had some hand in the conspiracy against the government. 
Notw^ithstanding the prayers and solicitations of the Princess of 
Conde, who threw herself at the king's feet, and implored his 
mercy in favor of her husband, Francis, who was secretly insti- 
gated by the queen-mother, with an unfeeling perseverance un- 
natural to his age, pursued the necessary measures for bringing 
the Prince of Conde to trial. The prince protested against such 
proceedings, and although his principal judges refused to sign the 
sentence, Francis insisted, and the prince was ordered into con- 
finement. Not more than a week after this inhuman sentence, 
Francis, as he was attending vespers, fainted in the church, 
whence he was conveyed senseless and motionless to his apart- 
ment, where he expired after an imbecile reign of one year. 

His body was privately conveyed to the royal vault of Saint 
Denis, attended only by Lansac and La Brosse, Avho had been 
his governors. 







//■/. Or„/.-/,\ 



CHARLES THE NINTH. 



A. D. 1560.] On the death of Francis, the crown devolved 
upon his next brother Charles, then only in the tenth year of his 
age, who accordingly received the oaths of the magistrates and 
great officers of the court, whom he confirmed in the possession 
of their places and privileges. The early age of the infant mo- 
narch incapacitating him from holding the reins of government, 
his mother, Catharine de Medicis, at first assumed the authority, 
though not the title, of regent, but after a short time she was com- 
pelled to relinquish a considerable portion of her power to the 
King of Navarre, who by a council was created lieutenant-general 
of the kingdom. The states-general, summoned by Francis to 
assemble at Orleans, were sufi'ered to meet, in consequence of a 
decision that the king never died, on the appointed day. 

Charles ordered the sentence of the Prince of Conde to be 
remitted, and the prince to receive his liberty; but that noble- 
man refused to leave the place of his confinement until the Guises 
were removed from court. However the Cardinal Lorraine in- 
terfered, and the Duke of Guise consented to retract; and he 
expressed his disapprobation of the proceedings against the prince, 
and his belief of his innocence. 

Conde repaired to Fontainbleau, where he was pubHcly jus- 
tified from the charges which had been preferred against him. 

Nearly the whole of this reign was a scene of war and blood- 
shed. Nearly every province in the kingdom was in commotion : 
the wars were between the Protestants and the Catholics. The 
Protestants were determined to hold their religious meetings m 
their ow^n way. This caused fear and uneasiness among the pre- 



212 CHARLES THE NINTH. 

lates and leaders of the Catholic party, since the Calvinists had 
already made great impression on the minds of the people, whose 
eyes began to discern with disgust the useless mummery of the 

Catholics. 

This reign will be ever memorable for the Massacre of Saint 
Bartholomew, so called from its having commenced on Saint Bar- 
tholomew's day. This massacre was intended to extirpate in 
France all Protestants. The Calvinists, who had for some years 
been increasing in numbers, now became formidable ; and fears 
were entertained of the overthrow of the papal religion. 

A private council was held, attended by Catharine in person 
and the Guises, in which it was decreed that a general massacre 
should take place, and that not one Protestant should be left 
alive in the kingdom. When this was proposed to the king his 
feelings revolted at the thought, but Catharine, who had perfect 
control of her son, was firm. 

As the fatal hour drew nigh, Charles was goaded by the stings 
of remorse, and betrayed such fear and irresolution, that all the 
art of his mother was requisite to extort from him an order to the 
assassins to begin their dreadful business. " Shall the occasion," 
said the blasphemous Catharine, "that God presents, of aveng- 
ing the obdurate enemies of the church, be suffered to pass 
through want of courage? How much better is it to tear in 
pieces those corrupt members, than to rankle the bosom of the 
church, the spouse of our Lord ?" This impious exhortation 
expelled from his bosom every sentiment of humanity, and, his 
eyes glaring with rage, he thus pronounced the horrid mandate — 
" Go on, and let none remain to reproach me with the deed !" 
Having thus attained her aim, Catharine anticipated the fixed hour 
of the signal, which was given by ringing the bell of the church 
of Saint Germain. 

The Duke of Guise, who had been the mean instrument in 
setting afoot this bloody deed, immediately issued forth, with a 
select party, to perpetrate their acts on all Protestants, but first 
on the Admiral Coligny, the head of that party. The massacre 



CHARLES THE NINTH. 213 

continued with unrelenting fury for three days. The Protestant 
chiefs were assaulted by the assassins and inhumanly butchered 
without means of defence. The destruction of about six thou- 
sand Protestants, of which five hundred were nobiUty, may 
be reckoned the fatal issue of this dreadful massacre, which 
was by some called The Parisian Matins, as the massacre in 
Sicily, in 1281, had been denominated The Sicilian Vespers. 
A jubilee, or public thanksgiving for the happy discovery of the 
pretended plots of the Protestants, was two days after proclaimed 
in the city ; and, by an edict, the day of Saint Bartholomew was 
ordered to be annually solemnized by religious processions. 

Impetuous, violent, choleric, vindictive and cruel, Charles dis- 
graced by his actions the throne, of his ancestors. No parent's 
fostering hand had sovx^n the seeds of virtue in his infant mind. 
All those generous feelings which are the source of true benevo- 
lence, and give dignity to man, were carefully suppressed by an 
unnatural mother, whose chief object was to render her son a 
prodigy of dissimulation. In the execution of this detestable 
plan, she too fatally succeeded ; and she lived to behold the 
dreadful effects of her own wickedness. Charles caused a 
smith's forge to be erected in his palace, where he amused him- 
self with the fabrication of gun-barrels, horse-chains, and other 
pieces of smiths' work. He piqued himself on his talent or 
imitating, with the greatest nicety, the various coins in circu- 
lation, such as the crown, the double ducat, and the testoon. 
When he showed one of them to the Cardinal Lorraine for his 
approbation, "Ah, sir," said the prelate, "you can do what you 
please, for you always carry your pardon in your own pocket." 
Charles died in the twenty-fourth year of his age, and fourteenth 
of his reign, and was interred at Saint Denis. 



HENKY THE THIRD. 



A. D. 1574.] On receiving the welcome news of his brother's 
decease, Henry secretly quitted Poland, and hastily fled from the 
throne to which he had so lately been elected. Before the tidings 
were publicly known, or his designs could be impeded, he had 
reached the frontiers of Germany, and was entertained at Vienna 
by Maximilian with magnificence. Thence he directed his course 
through the territories of the Venetians, rested a few days at 
Turin, and, in little more than three months from the death of 
Charles, embraced his mother at Lyons, and received from her 
hands the reins of government. 

Amidst the storms which threatened his throne on every side, 
Henry was crowned at Rheims by the Cardinal of Guise, and 
the next day bestowed his hand on Louisa, daughter to the Count 
of Vaudemont, of the house of Lorraine. 

The war with the Protestants was maintained with various 
success. The Duke of Guise acquired fresh laurels by the de- 
feat of a considerable body of German auxiliaries ; but Lesdi- 
guieres established himself in Dauphine, and the queen-mother, 
alarmed at his progress, released the Mareschals de Cosse and 
Montmorenci, and prevailed on the latter to negotiate a truce. 
It was concluded for six months only, and the towns of Niort, 
Saumer, La Charite, Mesieres, St. Joan de Angeli, and Cogniac, 
were surrendered to the reformers, as pledges for their security. 
The Duke of Guise, on his way to attend a council summoned 
by Henry, was stabbed with six poniards at once, by Loignac 
and his associates, and some historians assert that this assassina- 
tion was not unknown to Henry. The king, the moment he was 



HENRY THE THIRD. 215 

informed of the fate of the duke, passed into the apartment of 
the queen-mother, and acquainting her with the event, added, " I 
am now a king, madam, and have no competitor, for the Duke 
of Guise is no more." Catharine, without blaming or com- 
mending the action, only coldly asked, whether he had consi- 
dered the consequences. 

Catharine had been for some time confined to her bed by a 
severe indisposition. Accustomed to the supreme direction of 
affairs, her haughty temper could ill brook the reserve that for 
some time the king had maintained towards her. The pangs of 
disease were rendered more intolerable by the agitation of her 
mind. As her end approached, her eyes were opened to a just 
sense of the insidious policy which she had so long and so 
fatally pursued. In her last moments she exhorted Henry to 
restore the tranquillity of France, by allowing the free exercise 
of the Protestant religion. In her seventieth year Catharine of 
Medicis sunk into her grave, and escaped, by a timely death, 
beholding the destruction of her son. The king was soon con- 
vinced how necessary it was for him to adopt the dying counsel 
of Catharine. All zealous Catholics were armed against him; 
the citizens of his capital rejected his authority, and chose the 
Duke of Aumale as their governor; the doctors of the Sorbonne 
openly absolved his subjects from their allegiance ; and the coun- 
cil of the union, composed of forty members, assumed a sove- 
reign power. 

While Henry, forlorn and desponding, contemplated the gloomy 
and distracted prospect before him, a man of the name of James 
Clement, a Jacobin friar, and a native of Sens, procured, under 
false pretences, from the Count of Brienne, a passport, saying he 
had some important intelligence to communicate to the king in 
person. He was entertained by that officer at his house, who en- 
gaged to procure him an audience with Henry. The next morn- 
ing he was accordingly introduced to the king, to whom he pre- 
sented his letters ; but while Henry was occupied in the perusal 
of them, Clement suddenly plunged a knife into liis body. The 



216 hene;y the fourth. 

wounded monarch instantly drew it out, and twice struck with it 
the assassin. The attorney-general, who was near, with a blow 
of his sword extended him on the floor, and the imprudent zeal 
of two of the royal guards immediately dispatched him. 

Henry survived till the following morning, and then expired in 
the sixteenth year of his reign and thirty-ninth of his age. In 
him was extinguished the House of Angouleme. 

His widow, Louisa of Lorraine, retired to a convent, where 
she spent the last twelve years of her life in religious obscurity. 



HENEY THE FOURTH. 



A. D. 1589.] By the death of Henry the Third the sceptre of 
France was transferred from the family of Angouleme to that of 
Bourbon, and placed in the hands of Henry the Fourth, the first 
monarch of that family. The religious commotions which so 
long had agitated France, had afflicted also a great part of Europe. 
The prudence of Elizabeth had, indeed, secured the internal tran- 
quillity of England ; but the tempest had raged with redoubled 
violence in Scotland. The amiable, but unfortunate Mary, Avho 
had sought shelter in Britain from the fury of a rude, haughty 
and turbulent people, inflamed with sanguinary zeal for the doc- 
trines of Calvin had, after the farce of a public trial, perished on 
the scaffold, the victim of the jealousy of Elizabeth. 

To avenge her death, the King of Spain filled his ports with 
naval preparations ; but his fleet, which, from the size of his ships, 
and the ample manner in which they were equipped, obtained 
the name of the Invincible Armada, was defeated by the lighter 



HENRY THE FOURTH. 217 

vessels and superior dexterity of the English ; and the remnant 
of an armament, on \vhich the treasures of the Indies and Ame- 
rica had been profusely lavished, shattered by the winds and 
waves, and pursued by the triumphant navy of Elizabeth, escaped 
with difficulty into the ports of Spain. 

To the vast continent of America, discovered by the daring 
genius of Columbus, and reduced to subjection by the arms of 
Cortez and Pizarro, Philip had some time since added the domin- 
ions of Portugal. The Portuguese had first, of all the Europeans, 
despised the narrow and beaten track of navigation. They boldly 
committed themselves to the wide expanse of ocean, established 
their colonies on the coast of Africa, founded new cities in Asia, 
and planted Brazil, in South America, a valuable setdement, of 
which they still retain possession. 

Such Avas the state of affairs, when the stroke of assassination 
dismissed Henry the Third from a turbulent and ignominious 
reign. His successor, Henry the Fourth — who had completed 
his thirty-sixth year, and was adorned equally with every splendid 
quality both of mind and body ; eloquent in council, intrepid in 
action, fertile in resources ; a great general, an undaunted soldier, 
and a penetrating statesman — beheld in a moment a prospect pre- 
sented to his view, which, as it might kindle the ambition of the 
coldest, w^as sufficient to damp the ardor of the most aspiring 
spirit. 

The crown of France, his right by descent, was the object of 
his hopes; but innumerable objects still opposed the peaceable 
possession of it. He was, indeed, at the head of a considerable 
army, but the greatest part of his hopes, as well as of his subjects, 
consisted of Calvinists. His capital was in the hands of a faction, 
formidable by their numbers, and daring in their designs. Henry 
beheld with anxiety the assembly of the states, and dreaded the 
intrigues of the Duke of Mayenne with the court of Spain. 
He perceived the religious prejudices of the Catholics were con- 
firmed by a series of long and bloody hostihties. Those who 
hitherto acted with him, had been deluded by the hopes of his 



218 HENRY THE FOURTH. 

conversion. Their patience was now exhausted, and they publicly- 
suggested the necessity of transferring their allegiance to the Car- 
dinal of Bourbon, the cousin of the king. Desirous of delivering 
his people from the calamities of war, the humanity of Henry 
cooperated with his ambition. Even the most distinguished of 
the Protestant leaders, and his favorite Rosny, afterwards better 
known by the title of the Duke of Sully, exhorted him to con- 
sult the happiness of his subjects, and to relinquish a faith which 
he could maintain only amidst scenes of blood and devastation. 

In consequence of this advice, Henry invited the Catholic 
divines throughout his kingdom to come and instruct him in 
their religion ; and after being present at several conferences, he 
professed himself satisfied with their arguments, heard mass at 
St. Denis, read aloud his confession of the Catholic faith, and 
declared his resolution constantly to maintain and defend it. The 
king now determined to embrace the moment of returning pros- 
perity to celebrate his coronation. Rheims was still in the hands 
of his enemies, and Chartres was preferred for that important 
ceremony. It was performed by Nicholas de Thou, bishop 
of that city. It was scarcely accomplished before a new event 
engrossed the attention of Henry ; and while it dissipated the vis- 
ionary projects of his adversaries, seemed firmly to fix the crown 
on his head. Philip had now possession of part of Henry's ter- 
ritories, but on hearing of his conversion, relinquished at once 
his claim and did homage to the king as a vassal : while Henry 
and his troops marched into Paris amid the acclamations of the 
people. Villars, who had defended Rouen with distinguished 
skill and courage, soon opened the gates of that city, and pro- 
claimed Henry the Fourth. The daily return of his subjects to 
their allegiance inspired Henry with more vigorous counsels. 
While his allies pursued their joint preparations with diligence, 
the enemies of Henry resolved to assail the life of that monarc-h. 
As the king, in his apartments of the Louvre, stooped to embrace 
a nobleman that was presented to him, he received a stroke from 
a knife that cut his lip, and broke one of his teeth. The composure 



HENRY THE FOURTH. 219 

of Henry dispelled the consternation of his friends. The assas- 
sin was immediately discovered and seized. He proved to be a 
scholar of the College of Jesuits, to the influence of whose doc- 
trines Henry attributed his atrocious attempt. The assassin was 
executed, and the whole order of Jesuits Avere commanded to 
leave the kingdom, on penalty of death. Some years previous 
Henry had formed a political union with Margaret, sister to 
Charles the Ninth and Henry the Third— a princess who united 
all the virtues and vices of the family of Valois, whence she 
sprung. Her beauty and genius were celebrated by all the 
poets of her time. She sung and played on the lute with ex- 
quisite skill ; and in dancing no lady of the court was her equal. 
While Margaret stretched her dominion over the multitude that 
admired and adored her, she had never been able to touch the 
heart of Henry, on whom, indeed, at the command of her bro- 
ther Charles, she had bestowed her hand with extreme reluc- 
tance. Henry now proposed a dissolution of the marriage 
bonds, which Margaret would have readily assented to, but for 
the fear that the Duchess of Beaufort, to whom Henry had been 
paying unlimited homage, would be raised to the throne. 

The passion of the king would probably have triumphed over 
all opposition, and have placed the crown on the head of the 
duchess, when his fame was preserved from this degrading in- 
stance of weakness by an event as decisive as it was unex- 
pected. While the Duchess of Beaufort, in the vigor of health 
and pride of beauty, feasted her imagination with the grandeur 
of royalty, the visionary prospect was dissolved by the hand of 
death. She was suddenly seized with convulsions, and expired — 
a spectacle too horrid for description. Henry, having repudiated 
his first wife Margaret, in order to marry the beautiful Duchess 
of Beaufort, felt severely the loss of her on whom he had set his 
affections ; but his ministers, anxious for the public welfare, had 
reluctandy extorted from him a permission to negotiate an union 
with Mary de Medicis, niece to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
He accordingly hastened to Lyons to receive the hand of Mary, 



220 HENRY THE FOURTH. 

where the ceremony was performed with great pomp. At this 
time a conspiracy was discovered, the leaders of which were Ma- 
reschal Biron and the Duke of Bouillon. They were, with many 
others of the nobles of France, in the most secret negotiations 
with Spain and Savoy. Had they succeeded, they would have 
overturned the government of France. These noblemen were 
arrested, tried, and conveyed to the Bastile to prepare for death. 
In the court of that prison they were beheaded in the presence of 
the judges, and many nobles attached to the king. 

Henry was now making preparations to lead an army to the 
support of his German allies, and to vindicate, with his forces 
and treasures, their pretensions to the Duchies of Cleves and 
Juliers. But while he meditated enterprises the most important, 
his own death was planned and executed by Francis Ravaillac, 
a native of Angouleme. From that province the unhappy wretch 
had directed his steps to the capital, w4iere he conceived the 
dark and desperate design of mingling the miseries of a nation 
with his own, by arming his hand against the sovereign of 
France. The king had proposed a visit to the arsenal, and in a 
narrow street through which they had to pass, the carriage was 
stopped by accident by two carts. At this instant, as the king 
turned to speak to the Duke of Epernon, he received a stroke 
from a knife. He had scarcely time to exclaim, "I am wounded," 
before a second stroke more violent, and more fatally directed, 
pierced his heart, and breathing only a deep sigh, he sunk back a 
lifeless corpse. 

Thus perished, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and the 
twenty-first of his reign, Henry the Fourth, whose virtues and 
talents have justly entitled him to the honorable distinction of 
Great. He left three sons by Mary de Medicis. The eldest, 
Louis the Thirteenth, succeeded him to the throne, and the two 
younger, the Dukes of Orleans and Anjou, were infants. 



LOUIS THE THIRTEENTH, 



A. D. 1810.] With the life of Henry the Fourth were extin- 
guished the great designs that he had premeditated against the 
house of Austria ; and France beheld, with grief and terror, the 
sceptre pass from his vigorous grasp to the feeble hand of an 
infant. 

Mary de Medicis, the queen of Henry, amidst the dismay of 
the court, wasted not the important moment in unavailing sorrow; 
and the affliction, z/" a???/, that she felt on the loss of the king, was 
swallowed up by the more interesting care of obtaining the re- 
gency. Her ambition was gratified by the ready acquiescence of 
the parliament; and in her person were united the administra- 
tion of the kingdom and the gtiardianship of her son. 

The first moments had been employed in the acquisition of 
power ; the next were devoted to revenge. The wretch, Eavail- 
lac, whose guilty hand had caused the untimely death of Henry, 
was brought from his cell, to perish by the most exquisite tor- 
ments. His bones were broken by the arm of the executioner; 
his flesh was torn by hot pincers ; scalding lead and oil were 
poured upon his wounds ; and his mangled body, still sensible, 
was delivered to be dismembered by four horses. The stubborn 
frame resisted their utmost efforts. The indignant multitude, 
whose thirst for vengeance could no longer be restrained, ilished 
through the guards, and in an instant put an end to his misery by 
tearing him in pieces. On the intelligence of the death of Henry, 
the Prince of Conde quitted his retreat in Spain, and hastened to 
urge his pretensions to the regency as first prince of the blood. 
A splendid palace, a considerable sum of money, and a pension 



222 LOUIS THE THIRTEENTH. 

adequate to his dignity, were temptations that his necessities 
allowed him not to resist. The former ministers of the crown, 
who had served with fidelity, and who were recommended by 
their experience, were received with coldness, and listened to with 
evident disapprobation. The queen abandoned herself, without 
reserve, to her fond partiality for her Italian adherents. Conchini, 
a native of that country and of obscure extraction, had increased 
his influence by a marriage with Leonora Galigni, the favorite of 
the regent, and their united counsels ruled France with absolute 
sway. Louis now being declared of age, concluded a marriage 
with Anna, the Infanta of Spain. The ceremony was performed at 
Bourdeaux. 

The queen, though no longer legally invested with the authority 
of regent, still appeared to maintain her influence over her feeble 
son, and was herself devoted to the will of the Mareschal de 
Ancre, her Italian friend, and his consort. 

While the Mareschal of Ancre, elated at the prospect before 
him, gave loose to a temper naturally rash and vindictive, his 
capricious jealousies and unbridled arrogance precipitated on his 
own head the ruin that he meditated against his enemies. 

He had placed about the person of the young king a gentle- 
man of the name of Luines, who insinuated himself into the 
favor and confidence of Louis by his unwearied assiduities and 
by the ardor with which he planned and partook of his childish 
amusements. But while the thoughts and hours of this new 
favorite seemed occupied by sports and pleasures the most frivo- 
lous, he in private nourished an ambition above his rank and 
station. The mareschal had repulsed, with contempt, his offer of 
alliance by uniting his brother to the niece of Ancre ; and Luines, 
not insensible of the suspicious disposition of the Florentine, 
determined to provide for his own safety, by the destruction of 
a man whom from that moment he secretly considered as his 
implacable enemy. In the unguarded hours of familiarity, he 
impressed Louis with a lively dread of the dangerous designs of 
the aspiring Italian. He represented to him that his father, Henry 



LOUIS THE THIRTEENTH. 223 

the Fourth, had ever regarded with peculiar aversion the influence 
of the mareschal over the mind of the queen ; that he had only 
been prevented by the tears of his consort, from compelling them 
to repass the Alps. Louis listened attentively to the repeated 
suggestions of Luines, and at length imparted his resolution to 
achieve his own deliverance, and to extinguish the torch of civil 
commotion by the death of the mareschal. With the concurrence 
of Louis, Luines obtained the assistance of Vitri and his brother 
Hillier, both captains of the guards, to execute the will of the 
sovereign. Accordingly the following morning the mareschal 
was murdered as he was passing through the Louvre on a visit to 
his sovereign. The queen, on the destruction of her favorite, 
retired to Blois ; and the power which had been placed in the 
hands of Ancre was now transferred to Luines, and the dignity 
of mareschal conferred on Vitri, his brother. Hillier was raised 
to the vacant post of captain of the guards ; and the Bishop of 
Lucon was compelled to resign the seals of secretary of state, 
which he had so lately received. 

The reign of Louis the Thirteenth may be said to be pacific 
so far as regards foreign powers, but the jealousy and intrigue of 
his ministers and pretended friends kept his mind in a perpetual 
broil. 

The king now suffering from severe indisposition, his enemies, 
encouraged by the queen-mother, resumed their hopes and infamy ; 
but when the physicians had even pronounced the recovery of 
Louis impossible, a sudden and favorable turn in his disorder con- 
founded his foes, and permitted him to arrest and disgrace the 
most active of his enemies ; and Mary de Medicis herself was 
compelled to submit to a feigned reconciliation with the haughty 
statesman whose influence over the mind of her son had over- 
whelmed his regard and even his respect for his parent. 

The king, at the instance and persuasion of his favorite and 
adviser, had now determined to order into exile his mother, Mary 
de Medicis, the Duke of Orleans, his brother, and several of their 
adherents. Mary escaped to Flanders from the stern justice of 



224 LOUIS THE THIRTEENTH. 

her son, and the inexorable resentment of his minister ; the Duke 
of Orleans sought shelter from the storm in the court of Lorraine ; 
and abandoning himself to his natural levity, married Margaret, 
the sister of that prince. The pride of the King of France was 
wounded by the presumption of the Duke of Lorraine, in afford- 
ing shelter to, and contracting an alliance with, his fugitive bro- 
ther. Twice he invaded the territories of that prince, and twice 
compelled him to sue for peace on the most humiliating terms. 

Amidst these alarms the Duke of Orleans had left a court 
which could no longer afford him security, and had retired to 
his mother Mary de Medicis, in Flanders. Cardinal Richelieu, 
also, had long been a favorite of Louis, and very worthily so, for 
on his deathbed he protested to the king, that his councils had 
ever been directed to the honor of the crown and the welfare of 
the kingdom ; and he terminated his splendid career Avith a forti- 
tude and serenity that astonished those who had beheld the san- 
guinary effects of his administration. 

But the success of his arms could not check the progress of 
disease ; and Louis was sensible that the inevitable moment was 
rapidly approaching when his reign and his life must terminate 
together. 

The tender years of his children exposed the kingdom once 
more to those dissensions which had lately been so happily ex- 
tinguished ; and anxious for the welfare of his children and peo- 
ple, he diligently resolved in what hands to place the reins of 
government. 

Anne of Austria, his second wife, and mother of his two sons, 
had never partaken of his confidence ; and his brother, the Duke 
of Orleans, had forfeited his esteem by his levity, and incurred 
his enmity by his seditious intrigues. The queen, indeed, was 
appointed sole regent, with the care of her children; but the 
Duke of Orleans was declared head of the council, and lieuten- 
ant-general throughout the kingdom. 

The queen and the Duke of Orleans swore solemnly to pre- 
serve inviolate the deed which they had subscribed ; and Louis, 







}i:/..Or//,.y/n 



LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH. 225 

to render it still more authentic, commanded it to be registered 
in parliament. Louis died in the forty-second year of his age 
and thirty-third of his reign. The personal courage of Louis 
the Thirteenth, which shone forth with superior lustre, was fre- 
quently impeached by his severity, and sometimes by his cruelty. 



LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH. 



A. D. 1643.] The will of Louis the Thirteenth, during his life, 
had been continually opposed, and after his death it was openly 
violated. His resolution of establishing a council of regency was 
instantly rejected ; and his widow, Anne of Austria, by an arret 
in the Parliament of Paris, was invested with unlimited powers. 
She soon resigned herself to the influence of Cardinal Mazarin, a 
native of the little town of Piscina, in the Albruzzo. His political 
knowledge and address had introduced him to the confidence of 
Richelieu, and he now acquired that ascendency over the mind 
of his royal mistress which Richelieu had maintained over her 
deceased consort. 

Louis the Fourteenth, the lustre of whose reign afterwards 
attached to his name the envied appellation of Great, had not yet 
completed his fifth year, and the kingdom was involved in a war 
with the house of Austria. But the situation of Europe was 
favorable to the designs of France. The kingdom of Portugal 
had shaken off the Spanish yoke, and established the Duke of 
Braganza, as John the Fourth, on the throne — the Catalans still 
displayed the banner of revolt — the united provinces had been 
cherished and protected by Henry the Fourth and Louis the 
15 



226 LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH. 

Thirteenth — the sceptre of Sweden was in the hands of Christina, 
the celebrated, but eccentric daughter of the great Gustavus, and 
her generals still maintained in war the glory of their country — 
while, in England, Charles the First, inheriting from his father 
his fatal and lofty ideas of royal prerogative, had already kindled 
the flame of civil war throughout that island. 

Louis of Bourbon, Duke of Enguin, son of the Prince of Conde, 
had been appointed to the command of the French forces on the 
frontiers of Flanders, previous to the death of Louis the Thir- 
teenth. On intelligence of that event, he determined to attack the 
army of Spain, engaged in the siege of Rocroi. The remon- 
strances of Mareschal de I'Hospital were overborne by his ardor; 
and in the execution of his design, the fire of youth was united 
with skill and judgment scarcely to be found in age. Soon after 
this the Prince of Conde retired from a capital disgusted by his 
violent and haughty demeanor. 

The parliament declared the Duke of Orleans lieutenant-gene- 
ral of the kingdom ; and the king, by a sudden turn of popular 
favor, beheld himself firmly seated on his throne. Preparations 
now" commenced for the marriage of the king, and Louis repaired 
to Saint Jean de Luz to receive the hand of his bride. The royal 
pair returned to Paris amid the acclamations of the people. The 
Duke of Orleans was suddenly seized at Blois with a disease 
that ended his life in a few days. His death was but little noticed, 
and not at all regretted by his nephew. 

Louis, with an army of forty thousand men, directed by Tu- 
renne, burst into the defenceless provinces of Flanders. The towns, 
without magazines, without fortifications, and without garrisons, 
surrendered to Louis as soon as he presented himself before them. 
The banners of France were in an instant displayed from the 
walls of Athe, Tournay, Audenarde, Courtrai and Binche. Lisle 
alone maintained a resistance of nine days, and the king returned 
to Paris from a campaign, attended by the most important acqui- 
sitions, but which, in its progress, rather resembled a party of plea- 
sure than an hostile expedition. 



LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH. 227 

To diminish the numbers of his enemies, the King of France 
opened a negotiation with the Duke of Savoy; and Amadeus was 
easily induced to prefer his interest to the faith he had pledged 
his allies. The domestic misery of Louis had for many years 
kept pace with the public calamities. That court, the splendor 
and magnificent entertainments of which had excited the envy 
and admiration of Europe, had long been impressed with a deep 
and settled gloom. Louis was afflicted for many years with a 
cancerous tumor on his back, and although it had been removed, 
still it threatened to be the means of his dissolution. During this 
affliction he was doomed to experience the severest pangs of do- 
mestic calamity. The death of his eldest son, also of his grand- 
son and his wife, the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, and of their 
eldest son, which left, as heir-apparent to the throne of France, 
their second son Louis, an infant great grandson to the monarch, 
happened within the short space of ten months, and thus were four 
of the reigning family of France consigned to an early tomb. The 
character of Louis the Fourteenth, whose long and varied reign was 
alternately the glory and misfortune of his people, has exercised 
the ingenuity of the most celebrated historians. The masculine 
beauty of his person was embellished with a noble air; tlie dig- 
nity of his behavior was tempered with the highest atTability and 
politeness : elegant without being efteminate, addicted to pleasure 
without neglecting business, he was beloved in the midst of arbi- 
trary power. But his qualities seemed those rather that attract a 
momentary regard, than those that command a permanent esteem ! 
A purer praise attends the care with which he fostered the arts 
and sciences. Though his own acquisitions in literature were 
few and limited, yet he patronized the learned with a liberal hand ; 
and the painter, the sculptor, and the architect, were woke into 
life by the genial ray of his bounty. 



LOUIS THE FIFTEENTH. 



A. D. 1715.] Louis the Fifteenth was in the fifth year of his 
age when his great grandfather died. By a will of the late mo- 
narch, the Duke of Orleans, grandson to Henry the Fourth, was 
appointed sole regent. The early measures of his administration 
afforded to the people most favorable impressions of his judgment, 
his equity and moderation. His gratitude restored to the parlia- 
ment the right of remonstrating against the edicts of the crown. 
He compelled those who, during the late reign, had fattened on the 
miseries of the people, to disgorge their ill-gotten wealth ; he re- 
peopled the cities that had been deserted, and the lands that had 
been laid waste by the ravages of war; he promoted commerce, 
rewarded agriculture, and dispelled the jealousy that Europe had 
entertained of the turbulent disposition of France, by a close 
alliance with Great Britain. The regent elevated to the post of 
prime minister Cardinal Dubois, a man who, though descended 
from an obscure apothecary in a remote province, had acquired 
the first dignities of the church, and the most eminent situation in 
the state. The king had by this time attained that age which 
was fixed for his majority — the regency of course expired — and 
the Duke of Orleans assumed the title of minister. But his own 
life drew near its end — his constitution was shaken by excess — 
and his intemperate passions allowing him not to follow that regi- 
men prescribed by his physicians, gave his disease greater power. 
On the death of the Duke of Orleans, the reins of government 
were committed to the hands of the Duke of Bourbon Conde. 
A king young, indolent, and uninstructed — a minister without 
talents or ambition — and a kingdom at peace — furnish but slender 



LOUIS THE FIFTEENTH. 229 

materials for the pen of the historian. The late Duke of Orleans 
had engaged the hand of the King of France to the Infanta of 
Spain: but though that princess had been received at Paris with 
the honors of a queen, Louis was not disposed to consummate the 
marriage. The people, impatient for a union which might realize 
their hopes of male issue, and not expose the kingdom, by a dis- 
puted succession, to the calamities of war, loudly murmured 
against the Duke of Bourbon. The minister, though reluctantly, 
yielded to the general voice. He sent back the Infanta; and the 
Queen of Spain, daring, violent and implacable, would probably 
have resented the insult by open hostilities, had not her turbulent 
disposition already engaged her in a dispute with the empire. 
This was the only political event that characterized the short and 
languid administration of the Duke of Bourbon Conde. The 
reins of government soon dropped from his hands into those of 
Cardinal Fleury. At the age of seventy-three he retired to the 
monastery of Beam, and assumed the habit of a monk. 

The disputes of Spain and England respecting the trade of 
America, only feebly interrupted the tranquillity of Europe, and 
Cardinal Fleury still pursued in France that pacific system to 
which he was so strongly attached. Instead of arming the neigh- 
boring potentates against each other, he incessandy labored to 
extinguish their jealousies, and reconcile their hostile disposi- 
tions. He conciliated for a moment the Genoese and Corsicans, 
who had already plunged themselves into the calamities of civil 
war; and his mediation was even accepted by the Ottoman 
Porte, which desisted from improving its advantages in Hungary, 
and, at his powerful intercession, granted peace to the distressed 
emperor. Europe now appeared to be settling down into a 
peace, which fortunately lasted seven years, and which may be 
considered as the most prosperous and happy period ever known. 
Arts and letters were successfully cultivated ; manufactures and 
commerce flourished; and the manners of society assumed daily 
a higher polish. But monarchs, while they aspire to the fame of 



230 LOUIS THE FIFTEENTH. 

conquerors, seldom condescend to regard the felicity of their 
subjects ; and Louis, who had only consented to the peace of Aix- 
la-Chapelle to restore his navy, in the arms of the Marchioness 
of Pompadour meditated new wars ; and he prepared to dispossess 
the English of their principal settlements both in America and 
in the East Indies. Though George the Second, as King of Great 
Britain, while he retained the sovereignty of the seas, might de- 
spise the menaces of France, yet, as Elector of Hanover, he was 
still vulnerable in his German dominions ; and Louis, to avail 
himself of this advantage, entered into close and secret connec- 
tions with the courts of Vienna, Petersburg, and Dresden. De- 
voted to sensuality and voluptuousness, the hours of Louis 
seemed to glide in constant enjoyment. The Chancellor de Mau- 
peon took care that all money edicts were registered; and the 
inventive spirit of finance, by oppressing the people, liberally 
supplied the profusion of the court. 

But in the moment of satiety, the mind of Louis still appeared 
oppressed with melancholy. The sudden death of the Marquis 
de Chauvelin, the companion of his sensual excesses, strongly 
affected him ; and the subsequent fate of Mareschal d'Armenti- 
^res, who expired in a similar manner, and who was nearly of the 
same age as the monarch, increased his gloomy sensations. The 
symptoms of the small-pox already appeared on the king, and by 
the advice of his physicians he was hastily removed from Trianon 
to Versailles. The danger hourly increased, and Louis, apprised 
of the nature of his disorder, found, with the approach of death, 
the sense of religion return. He desired that the Countess du 
Barre, who had officially attended him, might be removed. He 
received the sacrament, and declared his intention, ever after, to 
be fixed in the maintenance of true religion, that he might atone 
to Heaven for a life of wickedness. But he was not permitted 
to evince the sincerity of these declarations. The ignorance 
of his physicians cooperated with the virulence of the disease ; 
and eight days after the first attack, that monarch closed a reign 



LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 231 

of fifty-nine, and a life of sixty-four years. Louis left behind 
him, by his wife Maria Josepha of Saxony, three sons and two 
daughters. His eldest son, the Duke de Berri, died eight years 
before his father, leaving one son, the dauphin, afterward Louis 
the Sixteenth. 



LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 



A. D. 1774.] Louis the Sixteenth was twenty years of age 
on his accession to the throne. His education had been entrusted 
to the Duke de la Vauguyon, a nobleman of rigid and ascetic 
piety. This man bred up the future heir to the throne of France 
as if he were destined to be a monk ; and took care to render him 
not only scrupulously ignorant of all polite learning, but even of 
history and the science of government. 

The very external appearance of Louis betrayed this tutelage. 
He was slovenly, melancholy, ungraceful, bashful, and so diffident, 
that his eyes often shrunk from the regard of his meanest subject. 
Such was the character of the new sovereign, called to administer 
the realm at the most critical period of its history. The first 
important step was the choice of a minister. The Duke d'Aiguil- 
lon, as the ally of Du Barry, was of course set aside ; and the 
Count de Maurepas was appointed in his stead. 

The whole policy of the new government seemed to be that of 
conciliating public opinion ; but, unfortimately, this opinion was 
not sufficiently uniform and enlightened to lead the monarch into 
the path of his own and the nation's safety. 

One more appointment was necessary to stamp the royal mind 



232 LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 

free from prejudice and open to the impression of merit. Mon- 
sieur Turgot, though possessed of integrity and industry, had 
not been able to command the public confidence. On his retreat, 
Monsieur Clugny, intendant-general of Bourdeaux, had been ele- 
vated to the vacant post ; on his death, which happened soon after, 
M. Taboreaux des Reaux was appointed his successor ; and Louis 
soon after associated with him, in the management of the finances, 
Monsieur Necker, by birth a Swiss, and by religion a Protestant. 
This gentleman, in the preceding reign, had been chosen to adjust 
some differences between the East India Company and the crown, 
and had discharged his trust with such rare discretion as to chal- 
lenge the approbation of both parties. Possessed of distinguished 
and acknowledged probity, his appointment would have excited 
no surprise, had it not been contrary to the constant policy of 
France, which had carefully excluded the aliens of her country 
and faith from the control of her revenue. 

Louis, perceiving a growing discontent among his subjects, was 
anxious to allay it by every concession in his power consistent 
with his dignity ; but it was generally believed that his royal con- 
sort strongly dissuaded him from any step that might tend to the 
diminution of the regal authority. The influence of the queen 
in the cabinet was undoubtedly great ; but the popularity which 
once accompanied her was no more; and some imputations of 
private levity, which had been rumored through the capital, were 
far from rendering her acceptable to the majority of the people; 
while the Count d'Artois, the king's brother, who had expressed 
himself in the most unguarded terms against the perseverance of 
the parliament, stood exposed to all the hatred of a lively and 
insulted people. It was not only in Paris that the flame of liberty 
once more burst forth ; the provincial parliaments imitated that of 
the capital. Among various instances of this nature, the parliament 
of Grenoble passed a decree against lettres cle cachet, the most 
odious engine of arbiti-ary power, and declared the execution of 
them, within their jurisdiction, by any person and under any 
authority, to be a capital crime. Louis, now being accused of 



LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 233 

having committed a multitude of crimes to establish his tyranny, 
and to destroy the freedom of the empire, the parliament decided 
on impeaching him and bringing him to trial. Accordingly a long 
list of accusations was made out, and after a tedious, and what 
might well be termed a mock trial, he was found guiUy. 

A question then arose as to the period of execution, and the 
votes were taken to decide upon the proposed delay, the mem- 
bers being allowed to deliver their opinions only by yes or no. 
The president then declared, that of the six hundred and ninety 
members, three hundred and eighty voted for having the sentence 
carried into execution without delay, and three hundred and ten 
for postponement. Whereupon Cambaceres rose and said, " Citi- 
zens, by pronouncing the sentence of death against the King of 
the French, you have done an act which will not pass away like 
the meteors of false glory. Inflexible in justice, and more indulg- 
ent to tyranny than its crimes and intrigues, its falsehood and 
hypocrisy are entitled to ; unmoved by the storms that burst abroad, 
and the muttering vengeance that prowls at home, the spirit of re- 
generated France has inspired you to establish your own liberty 
by a decision that will be recorded by the graver of immortality 
in the annals of history. Public safety prescribed to you that 
awful decree. It is passed in the name of justice. In the name of 
humanity I stand up, to call your attention to the person who is 
the object of it. Let us afford him every possible consolation ; 
and let us take proper measures to prevent the execution of the 
national will from being sullied by any irregularity. I move, 
therefore, that — 

" 1. The executive council be immediately summoned, and 
that a copy of the decree which pronounces sentence of death on 
Louis, be delivered to it. 

"2, The executive council be charged to notify this decree to 
Louis in the course of the day ; and to cause it to be executed 
in twenty-four hours after it is delivered to it. 

" 3. The Mayor and municipal officers of Paris be enjoined 
to suff'er Louis to communicate freely with his family, and to 



234 LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 

have with him such priests as he may desire in his last mo- 
ments." 

On the evening of Sunday, after having passed the day in pre- 
parations for his approaching end, his family, from whom he had 
been separated since his trial, were conducted to the tower of the 
Temple, and allowed the sad indulgence of a last interview, unmo- 
lested by the presence of his guards. Alas! when imagination 
pictures the anguish of such an interview, it is not necessary to 
look back on the former elevation of the sufferer, in order to pity 
the gloomy transition in his fate. It is not necessary to recollect, 
that he who was the following morning to suffer death upon the 
scaffold, was once the first monarch of Europe; and would be led 
to execution through the streets of his own capital ! It is enough 
to consider this unfortunate person as a man, a husband, a father ! 
That anguish was not confined to the bosom of the king, the 
queen, and his sister. The princess, his daughter, had attained 
that age when, perhaps, the soul is most susceptible of strong 
impressions, and its sensibility most exquisite. Even the young 
prince, who was only in his ninth year, caught the infectious 
sorrow. The king had sufficient firmness to avoid seeing his 
family on the morning of his execution. He desired that the 
queen might be told that he was unable to bear the sight of her 
and his children in those last moments. 

He took a ring off of his finger, M^hich contained some of his 
own hair, some of the queen's and of his two children, and desired 
it might be given to the queen. He called the municipal officers 
round him, and told them it was his dying request, that Clery, 
his valet-de-chambre, might remain with his son. He then said 
to Santerre, ^''Marchons ;'''' and after crossing, with a hurried pace, 
the inner court of the Tem.ple, got into the mayor's carriage, 
which was in waiting. He was attended by his confessor, an 
Irish clergyman of the name of Edgeworth, and appeared to have 
derived from his pious consolations a considerable degree of 
calmness and fortitude ; but besides the soothing support of re- 
ligion, he is said to have cherished the hope, to his last moment, 



LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 235 

that the people, whom he meant to address from the scaffold, 
would demand that his life should be spared ; and his confessor 
has been said, from mistaken notions of compassion, to have not 
discouraged the hope. After ascending the scaffold with firm 
step, twice the unhappy monarch attempted to speak, and twice 
Santerre prevented him from being heard, by ordering the drums 
to beat. 

Alas ! those who sympathized in his agonies had carefully 
shunned the fatal spot, and those who surrounded him were 
steeled by the passions of the day against commiseration. San- 
terre called to the executioner to do his office. Then it was 
that despair seized upon the mind of the unfortunate monarch— 
his countenance assumed a look of horror — twice with agony he 
repeated, "/e suis perdu.' Je suis perdu J^^ (" I am undone ! I am 
undone!") 

His confessor meantime called to him from the foot of the 
scaffold, ^^ Louis, fils de Saint Louis, montez au cielP^ (" Son of 
Saint Louis, ascend to Heaven,") and in one moment he was 
delivered from the evils of mortality. The executioner held up 
the bleeding head, and the guards cried "Fzve la Bepicblique T^ 

The hair was sold in separate tresses at the foot of the scaf- 
fold, and, as if every incident of this tragedy had been intended 
to display the strange vicissitudes of human fortune, as if every 
scene was meant " to point a moral," the body was conveyed in 
a cart to the parish of St. Madelaine, and laid among the bodies 
of those who had been crushed to death on the Place de Louis 
15th, when Louis the Sixteenth was married, and of those who 
had fallen before the chateau of the Tuileries on the tenth of 
August. The grave was filled with quicklime, and a guard 
placed over it till the corpse was consumed. The ground was 
then carefully leveled with the surrounding earth, and no trace 
or vestige remains of that spot, to which, shrouded by the doubt- 
ful gloom of twilight, ancient royalty might have repaired, and 
poured a tear, or superstition breathed its ritual for the departed 
spirit. 



236 LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 

Thus fell Louis the Sixteenth from the loftiest summit of ex- 
ternal grandeur to the lowest and last stage of human misfortune 
and ignominy. 

The next victim of popular resentment which fell at this ex- 
citing period, was General Custine, whose former services merited 
every respectful regard. He became a victim to the boundless ef- 
fects of jealousy and conspiracy. The charges against him were: 
That he had maintained a secret correspondence with the enemy 
— that he had insulted the national representation by visiting and 
corresponding with the family of the late king; and many others 
equally false. Custine, on his trial, affirmed that every charge 
against him (with the exception of that of his having visited the 
afflicted family of his late sovereign), was false, and founded only 
on the base villany of his enemies. However, the unfortunate 
general was led to the scaffold, asserting his innocence, and pray- 
ing for the happiness of his afflicted country to the last moments 
of his life. 

The trial of the queen immediately followed that of Custine. 
It was provoked at this time by a plan that had been laid to carry 
her off by force from the Temple, during the first tumult that 
should occur; and by the discovery that a number of strangers 
had recently arrived at Paris, suspected to be for that purpose. 
This, no doubt, exasperated her enemies, and made them more 
determined that she should lose her life. Accordingly, a little 
before midnight, two municipal officers repaired to the tower of 
the Temple, and announced the decree, which ordered her removal 
to the Conciergerie, a dungeon considered more secure. She was 
in bed. "Must I arise ?" she asked. The officers replied in the 
affirmative. She then desired them to withdraw, that she might 
dress herself, and they did so. When dressed, they notified their" 
orders to search her. She delivered to them twenty-five Louis- 
d'ors, and a pocket book, but used repeated entreaties to be suf- 
fered to keep the book, or for them to seal it up and take a pro- 
tocol of its contents. She then desired to take some clothes. 
Permission being given, she tied up in a bundle some linen, caps, 



LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 237 

and a black silk jacket. She then desired to have an interview 
with her daughter and Madame Elizabeth. This was permitted, 
after some hesitation. Madame Elizabeth stept first into the 
apartment. Melting in tears, bordering on distraction, and almost 
deprived of her senses, she fell into the arms of the queen. 

Her majesty preserved the most unshaken fortitude in this try- 
ing scene. When her daughter appeared, she said, " My daughter, 
in every situation of life have recourse to thy blessed religion ! 
and at this trying moment let thine innocent prayers ascend to 
the holy tribunal for the heavy and unmerited afflictions of thy 
wretched mother !" The queen then desired to see her son, but 
her demand was refused. The officers, however, told her, " Your 
son is innocent ; he will not be hurt." 

She then took the parcel containing the few clothes she had 
collected, under her arm, descended the stairs, and found a hack- 
ney coach waiting for her in the court yard. The queen was 
dressed in white, and wore a black girdle. She was conducted 
to the prison through a narrow passage, very badly lighted, in 
which the sudden barking of two mastiffs threw her into con- 
vulsions. The officers were then obliged to carry her to the 
prison in their arms ; and being arrived there, she continued so 
very ill, that for one hour her life was despaired of. She re- 
covered, however, by the following morning. The queen was 
confined in the prison of the Conciergerie from August till Octo- 
ber, during which interval her enemies were most assiduous in 
forming their unwarrantable charges, and producing those fiends 
who, for the sake of money, were willing to confirm the same by 
the most solemn oaths. 

The following charges were preferred against the queen : 

1. It is proved, beyond all doubt, that there existed machina- 
tions and private intelligences with powerful foreign states, tend- 
ing to furnish succors in money, and to give them ingress into 
the French territory, for the purpose of facilitating the progress 
of their arms. 



238 LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. 

2. Marie Antoinette is convicted of having cooperated with 
those machinations, and of having entertained those intehigences. 

3. It is proved that there existed a plot or conspiracy to light 
up a civil war in the heart of the republic. 

4. Marie Antoinette is convicted of having had a share in that 
plot and conspiracy. 

In October, Marie Antoinette was brought to trial, and with all 
the above infamous charges declared to have been proved against 
her, found guilty. The queen, during the whole of this vile and 
iniquitous proceeding, preserved a calm and steady countenance. 
The president then rose, and pronounced the following sentence : 

" The tribunal, after the unanimous declaration of the jury in 
conformity to the laws cited, condemns the said Marie Antoinette, 
widow of Louis Capet, to the penalty of death — her goods to be 
confiscated for the benefit of the republic — and it orders that this 
sentence be executed in the Place cle Revolution.''^ 

The queen, during the reading of the sentence, did not show 
the smallest alteration in her countenance, and left the hall with- 
out uttering a word. It was then half-past four o'clock in the 
morning, and at twelve of the same day she forfeited her life in 
order to satisfy a lawless rabble. At half-past eleven Marie 
Antoinette was brought out of the prison, dressed in a white 
dishabille. Like the vile malefactor, she was conducted to the 
place of execution. Her hair from behind was entirely cut off, 
and her hands were tied behind her back. She -wore a very small 
white cap. 

An immense number of people crowded the streets, crying 
" Vive la Mepublique.^^ Her eyes, though bent on vacancy, did 
not conceal the emotion that was laboring at her heart. Her 
cheeks were sometimes streaked with red, and sometimes over- 
spread with deadly paleness ; but her general look was that of 
indignant sorrow. She ascended the scaffold with precipitation, 
and her head was in a moment held up to the people by the exe- 
cutioner. 

Louis the Sixteenth was, at the period of his execution, in the 



LOUIS THE SEVENTEENTH. 239 

thirty-ninth year of his age, and the nineteenth of an unhappy 
reign. He left behind him, by Marie Antoinette of Austria, two 
children: Louis, Charles the Dauphin, and one daughter. 

If Providence had designed Louis the Sixteenth for a martyr, 
it could not have bestowed a character more apt or perfect to sus- 
tain that trying part. Long will it be ere the deep stain left on 
the cause of liberty by the pure and guiltless blood of the royal 
victim, shall be utterly effaced ! 



LOUIS THE SEVENTEENTH. 



A. D. 1793.] Louis the Seventeenth, second son of Louis the 
Sixteenth and of Marie Antoinette, was born at Versailles, 1785, 
and in 1789, at the death of his elder brother, received the title of 
Dauphin. He was four years old when his mother presented 
him to the enraged populace of Paris, and carried him to the 
capital on the terrible 5th and 6th of October. During his con- 
finement with his parents and Madame Elizabeth in the temple, 
his innocent gayety and sweet disposition were the only solace of 
the afflicted family. On the death of his father the royalists 
proclaimed the dauphin king, and his uncle (since Louis the 
Eighteenth), assumed the title of regent. In 1793 he was sepa- 
rated from his mother, sister and aunt, and delivered to a shoe- 
maker of the name of Simon, a fierce Jacobin, a man of low and 
vulgar cunning who, with his wife, treated the young Capet with 
the most unfeeling barbarity. 

Reproaches, blows, scanty food, the damps and filth of a dun- 



240 NAPOLEON. 

geon, and a sleep broken by abuse, were the lot of the innocent 
child. 

He was even compelled to drink intoxicating liquors, and join 
in every act of revelry and dissipation, till his delicate constitu- 
tion gave way. He died June 8th, 1798, at the age of ten years. 
He was buried in the common grave in the cemetery of Saint 
Margarite, where his remains could not be distinguished. 

Several impostors have appeared, pretending to be the prince; 
among them Hervagant, a tailor's son, who died in prison, and 
Bruneau, a shoemaker, who was condemned to seven years' im- 
prisonment. 



NAPOLEON. 



A. D. 1804.] The smoking embers of the Revolution, like 
a destructive tornado, had swept away everything in its fell 
career, when, from the mass of the people, rose the stupendous 
genius of war, who carved out his own fortune, and vaulted into 
the imperial throne. And who was this colossus of the age ? 
A name pre-eminently illustrious in the opinion of the multitude, 
by some deemed terrible, but forever renowned, according to the 
judgment of all. A name borne by one, who advanced through 
multitudes — sometimes stormy, at others lulled in peace ; — whose 
march was amidst a forest of bayonets, either raised in his defence, 
or directed against his heart — whose hand was accustomed to 
model thrones, and shake empires to their very basis. And this 
being was — Napoleon. From the revolution of the 13th Ven- 
demiaire, 1795, when Napoleon played so conspicuous a part 



NAPOLEON. 241 

under Barras, as, immediately after, to ensure the command of the 
army of Italy, down to the first abdication of the Emperor, in 
1815, the eyes not only of Europe, but of the greatest portion of 
the habitable globe, were directed to the deeds of that extraor- 
dinary man. In the first Italian campaign, he acquired a renown 
sufiicient to immortalize man ; after which we behold him daring 
the burning sands of Egypt, and performing feats of arms, and 
regulating a system of government, arts and manufactures, that 
confer upon him the meed of everlasting fame. In succession 
follow the German war of 1805, terminated with the victory 
of Austerlitz ; the Prussian contest of the ensuing year, as well 
as 1807, which closed with the aflfair of Freidland; the struo-o-le 

too 

in Spain of 1808; the second Austrian campaign of 1809, end- 
ing on the field of Wagram; the invasion of Russia, in 1812, 
where the elements alone proved Napoleon's conquerors; the 
Saxon campaign of 1813, ending at Dresden with the battle of 
Hanau ; and, in conclusion, the eventful contests on the French 
and Belgian soils, in 1814 and 1815. Had less of belligerent 
operations employed Napoleon's mind; had he rather curbed 
the rein of vaulting ambition, and applied the energies of his 
genius to internal policy, trade, manufactures, and arts, he would 
still, in all human probability, have been the occupant of the 
throne, and established his dynasty on a basis never to be shaken. 
Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio in Corsica, on the 
15th of August, 1769. He received his education in the Royal 
Military College ; he was appointed Lieutenant the 1st Sept., 1785; 
Captain, 7th Feb., 1792; Major, 19th of October, 1793; Com- 
mandant of Artillery at Toulon, in Dec. the same year ; Briga- 
dier, 6th Feb., 1795 ; Lieutenant-General of the Army of the 
Interior, 16th October, 1795; Field Marshal, the 26th of the 
same month; Commander-in-Chief of the army of Italy, the 22d 
Feb., 1796, and was married in the same year to Josephine dela 
Plagerie, widow of Beauhamois : he sailed with the expedition to 
Egypt, the 19th May, 1798; arrived at Alexandria 1st July; em- 
barked to return to France 22d August; was named First Consul 
16 



242 NAPOLEON. 

10th Jan., 1802; Consul for life, 10th August same year; and 
Emperor, 18th May, 1804. He was consecrated and crowned in 
Paris, by Pope Pius the 7th, the December following ; proclaimed 
King of Italy the 17th March, 1805, and crowned at Milan, 28th 
May; he was proclaimed and acknowledged Protector of the 
Confederation of the Rhine 12th July, 1806; Mediator of the 
Swiss Confederation, 10th Sept., 1806; his marriage with Jo- 
sephine declared null the 16th of December, 1809; and on the 2d 
April, 1810, he married Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Austria. 
Of this marriage there was born, on the 20th March, 1811, Napo- 
leon Francisco Carlos Jose. Napoleon made his entry into 
Moscow the 14th Sept., 1812; this was the apogee of his glory, 
from which his adverse fortune and decadence began. All those 
nations which had already declared against him, made the greatest 
efforts to precipitate his ruin, and consummate his end. The allies 
entered Paris on the night of the 30th of March, 1814 ; he abdi- 
cated the 11th April; embarked for the Island of Elba the 20th 
of the same month ; where he remained until February, 1815 — in 
which month he embarked for France, and landed at Cannes, in the 
Gulf of St. John, 1st March; entered Paris the 20th day after his 
disembarkment ; lost the battle of Waterloo 18th June, 1815 ; abdi- 
cated again the 22d of the same month ; submitted himself to the 
protection of the English, and embarked in the Bellerophon 74, 
the 15th July ensuing, and was subsequently carried to the Island 
of St. Helena, where he arrived 13th October, and after a resi- 
dence of six years, died the 5th May, 1821. 

" Alone he sleeps ! the mountain's cloud, 
That night hangs round him, and the breath 
Of morning scatters, is the shroud 
That wraps the conqueror's clay in death." 



LOUIS THE EIGHTEENTH. 



A. D. 1814.] Stanislaus Xavier de France, second son of 
the Dauphin, the son of Louis the Fifteenth, and brother of Louis 
the Sixteenth, was born at Versailles, Nov. 15, 1755. On the 
breaking out of the Revolution, the Count of Provence, as he 
was then styled, fled from Paris to Coblentz, and took an active 
part in the organization of the system of emigration. The pro- 
gress of the republican arms afterwards compelled him to abandon 
this asylum for Turin, where he was received by his father-in- 
law, the King of Sardinia ; but subsequently again removed to 
Verona, under the title of the Count de Lille, which he retained 
till his accession to the French throne. In 1796 he joined the 
army of the Prince de Conde, then at Reigal, and two years 
afterwards was formally acknowledged King of France by the 
Emperor Paul, of Russia, at whose invitation he took up his resi- 
dence for a while, in the ducal castle of Mittau in Courland. 
The versatility of his new ally, however, soon put an end to his 
continuance in this abode. He received peremptory orders to 
quit the Russian territories in a week, and took refuge at War- 
saw, whence the King of Prussia, on his refusing to renounce his 
throne in favor of Bonaparte, compelled him to retire, as a last 
resource, to England. 

There he was hospitably received, and remained during the 
great struggle at Hartwell, in Buckinghamshire, living in a very 
simple manner, occupying himself with the Roman classics — 
especially Horace, of whom he translated much, and retained in 
memory a large part — and partly in political studies. That he 
resembled in character his unfortunate brother, we know from 



244 LOUIS THE EIGHTEENTH. 

several examples of his kind feelings. Soon after the disastrous 
expedition of the French to Russia, he wrote to the Emperor 
Alexander a letter, recommending the French prisoners of war, 
as his children, to the magnanimity of that monarch, and he 
refused to join in the rejoicings in England, for he could not but 
mourn the death of so many Frenchmen. 

Soon after a proclamation was published from Louis the 
Eighteenth to the French, dated Hartwell House, 1st Feb., 1814, 
which induced a party, first in Bourdeaux, and afterwards in Paris, 
to declare for the Bourbons. The king promised entire oblivion 
of the past, the support of the administrative and judicial autho- 
rities, the preservation of the new code, with the exception of 
those laws which interfered with religious doctrines ; security to 
the new proprietors against legal processes ; to the army, all its 
rights, titles and pay; to the senate the support of its political 
rights ; the abolition of the conscription ; and, for himself and his 
family, every sacrifice which could contribute to the tranquillity 
of France. The restoration of the Bourbons was a subject first 
brought strongly home to the French at the time of the entrance 
of the allies into Paris, by the declaration of the Emperor Alex- 
ander that they would neither treat with Napoleon nor with any 
member of his family. Talleyrand and De Pradt contributed not 
a little to this in an interview with Alexander, the King of Prussia, 
Schwartzenberg, Nesselrode, Pozzo di Borgo, and Lichtenstein, 
by the assurance that the restoration of the Bourbons was the 
wish of a large majority of the nation. 

The senate now appointed a provisional government under the 
presidency of Talleyrand, and a law was passed for the deposi- 
tion of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons. On re- 
ceiving this intimation Louis the Eighteenth left Hartwell and 
repaired to London, whence the Prince Regent accompanied him 
to Dover. From Dover the Duke of Clarence (afterwards Wil- 
liam the Fourth) conducted him to Calais. Upon landing, where 
he met the Duchess d'Angouleme, he pressed her to his heart and 
said, " I hold again the crown of my ancestors ; if it were of roses, 



LOUIS THE EIGHTEENTH. 245 

I would place it on your head; as it is of thorns, it is for me to 
wear it." 

The memory of his landing upon French ground is perpetuated 
by a Doric column of marble erected at Calais, and the trace of 
his first footstep is carefully preserved in brass. Having reached 
Paris, the hopes of all now rested upon him. 

When the chamber was occupied with fixing the civil list, 
Louis answered the deputies, " Let them attend to the state, and 
neglect me." 

The king formed his cabinet from the old nobility of France. 
It could not be expected that men who had voted for the death of 
Louis the Sixteenth could now be peers of France. Louis had 
no sooner been seated on the throne of France than Napoleon 
made his appearance in Paris, having effected his escape from 
Elba. This was like a thunderstroke to the army and nation. 

Louis and his family hastily fled from Paris, and reached Lille 
in safety ; from which they were also obliged to retreat in a few 
days to Ghent. 

In the meanwhile, the Chambers, convoked by Napoleon, had 
appointed an executive commission under the Presidency of 
Fouche, and deputies who were to negotiate with the allies 
upon the basis of their independent right to choose a form of 
government : but the allies would not consent to this. Blucher 
and Wellington besieged Paris, and Fouche, who had already 
induced Napoleon to leave France, put a stop to the shedding of 
blood by the capitulation of Paris, July 3d, 1815. Louis was 
thus again restored to the throne of France. On July 7th the 
Prussians and English entered Paris, and on the afternoon of the 
9th, Louis followed under the protection of Wellington. The king 
immediately appointed his ministry with Talleyrand at its head. 

He survived this second elevation nine years, dying in his sixty- 
ninth year in September, 1824. 

For a considerable time previous to his decease, a dry ery- 
sipelas in his legs had deprived him of the power of walking ; 
while his attachment to the pleasures of the table assisted a 



45 CHARLES THE TENTH. 

natural tendency to corpulency, and aided materially to produce 
the disease which terminated in his dissolution. 

As the restored monarch of France, Louis the Eighteenth acted 
with great temper and policy — at least on his second return to 
his capital, after the battle of Waterloo ; for it required no mean 
degree of skill to render the intrusion of the foreign armies which 
made him King of France, palatable to the people over whom he 
was called to reign. 

On the death of Louis, his brother, the Duke of Artois, after- 
ward Charles the Tenth, was called to the throne. 



CHAELES THE TENTH. 



A. D. 1824.] Charles the Tenth, youngest brother of Louis 
the Sixteenth, and Louis the Eighteenth, ascended the throne of 
France at the death of the latter, A. D. 1824. 

Till 1795 he bore the title of Count d' Artois; till 1824 that 
of Monsieur. Charles was educated at the court af his eldest 
brother Louis the Sixteenth, and early manifested an amiable 
disposition, and a capacity for mental culture, together with a 
love for expensive pleasures. In 1782, the Count cT Artois 
served as a volunteer in the camp of St. Roche, before Gibraltar, 
and was created Chevalier of St. Louis. 

In 1787, as president of a bureau of the notables, he pursued 
different views from his brothers, the king, and the Count of Pro- 
vence. The people, believing that his opposition to the proposed 
reform would be a serious injury, manifested their ill will by an 
attack on his life. After this the duke took up his residence 



CHARLES THE TENTH. 247 

at Brussels and Vienna. Louis the Sixteenth took the oath to 
maintain the constitution, and invited the French princes, who 
were then absent, to return to France; but they refused to obey, 
and protested against the new constitution — equally disobedient 
to their country and their king. 

Hereupon the legislative assembly of the nation withdrew from 
the Count d'Artois the appanage of 1,000,000 francs, assigned 
him by the constitution, and referred his creditors to his estates. 
Being, by this decree, reduced to great distress, he solicited the 
assistance of the Empress Catharine, who received him at her 
court and temporarily relieved his wants. He sent his diamonds, 
and the sword which Louis the Sixteenth had given his son, to 
Marshal Broglio, to relieve, by the sale of them, his most pressing 
necessities. This being done, he retired to England and took up 
his residence at Edinburgh, in Scotland. During the three years he 
resided there, the English government gave him a pension, for 
the time he was obliged to remain in Great Britain, of fifteen 
thousand pounds sterling. In 1813, he returned to the continent 
to await the result of the entry of the allied armies into France. 

After one year's residence abroad, he returned to Paris, and 
assumed the supreme authority till the arrival of Louis the 
Eighteenth. On the return of Louis to his kingdom he appointed 
Charles Colonel-general of the French National Guards, and of 
the Swiss. The following year, 1814, he accompanied the king 
to the Chamber of Deputies, and swore, " in the name of honor, 
fidelity to the king and charter." In 1818, he resigned the com- 
mand of the National Guards. He was, moreover, the founder 
and distributor of the decoration of the lily. The parties, in par- 
ticular, of the Ultra-royalists, and of the Ultra-montanists, seem 
to have attached themselves to him or to his friends, and during 
the last part of the reign of Louis the Eighteenth, he had an im- 
portant influence on the course of public affairs, and the appomt- 
ment of ministers. 

On the day of his brother's death, whom he had not left for a 
moment during the last two days of his life, he was received 



248 CHARLES THE TENTH. 

with the ancient and customary cry "Ze roi est mort! Vive le 
roir^ The members of the royal family, the diplomatic corps, 
and the first civil authorities, rendered him their homage. The 
Duke of Angouleme now assumed, in conformity with ancient 
usage, the title of Dauphin; his wife was called Dauphiness; the 
Duchess de Berri, Madame. Charles the Tenth immediately con- 
ferred on the house of Orleans the title Mtesse Royale. On Sep- 
tember 27, 1824, Charles made his public entry into Paris on 
horseback, and in the month of May following, he was crowned at 
Rheims, where many ancient customs, and some ridiculous usages 
were revived. For instance, the vial containing the holy oil (which 
was said to have been brought in former ages by a dove from Hea- 
ven), was again restored. Charles the Tenth swore to govern ac- 
cording to the charter. The speech of Charles at the opening of 
the Chamber, a short time after the battle of Navarino, excited 
much sensation, because it was rather favorable to the Greeks. 
Prince Polignac, who, it is said, was a natural son of Charles, and 
had been ambassador in London, was recalled and made prime 
minister. This was displeasing to the French, and the sudden 
and inconsistent changes of the ministry which were continually 
taking place during Charles' reign, seemed to indicate that he 
was not possessed of talents for such a government. 

The ministry of Polignac becoming very unpopular, and the 
king continually dissolving and again forming the Chamber of 
Deputies, he was advised peaceably to abdicate the throne. This 
he did in the year 1830, and retired for the last time to his former 
residence at Edinburgh, where, after six years passed in tranquil- 
lity and retirement, he died in the seventy-ninth year of his age. 



LOUIS PHILIP. 



A. D. 1830.] The line of Bourbon Orleans was founded by- 
Philip, brother of Louis the Fourteenth, who conferred on him the 
Duchy of Orleans. Philip the Second, his son, was the well- 
known regent of France, whose grandson was Louis Philip, 
father to the present king. Louis bore at first the title of Duke 
of Valois, and, when his father became Duke of Orleans, that of 
Duke of Chartres. 

At the age of five years, he was placed under the care of the 
Chevalier De Bonnard; but shortly after, his education was in- 
trusted to the Countess De Genlis. 

Louis was in his eighteenth year placed at the head of the 
14th regiment of dragoons, in garrison at Vendome. During 
his stay at that place he displayed great courage and presence of 
mind, by which he saved the life of a clergyman ; also the life of 
an engineer from drowning. The city of Vendome decreed to 
him, on account of these honorable actions, a civic crown. The 
following year he passed the winter with his regiment at Valen- 
ciennes, fulfilling the duties of the oldest colonel of the garrison. 
Shortly after he was appointed lieutenant-general, and ordered to 
take the command of Strasburg. "I am too young," said he, 
" to shut myself up in a town ; I prefer an active life." 

The following year he displayed great bravery and courage at 
the battle of Valmy ; also at the celebrated battle of Jemappes he 
distinguished himself. 

Louis was at Tournay when the convention passed a decree 
of banishment against all the members of the Bourbon family 
then in France. He was desirous that his father and all the 



•250 LOUIS PHILIP. 

family should join him in emigrating to the United States, but 
his distance from Paris delayed the arrangements, and the decree 
was revoked before they were finished. The duke, who had 
manifested, with more frankness than prudence, his horror at the 
revolutionary excesses in France, saw a decree of arrest leveled 
against himself. He at once resolved to quit the country. He 
went to Mons, where he was kindly received by the Archduke 
Charles, who offered him a commission in the Austrian army. 
This he declined, and obtained passports for Switzerland. Hav- 
ing but a small sum of money, he crossed, as a fugitive, the same 
countries through which he had passed, a short time before, as a 
conqueror with the French army, and learned, from a newspaper, 
the arrest of all his family. At Schaff hausen he met his sister 
with Madame de Genlis and the Count Montjoye. General Mon- 
tesquiou, who, having fallen under the accusation of the consti- 
tutional assembly, had taken refuge in Switzerland, and lived 
in retirement at Bremgarten, under the name of the Chevalier 
Rionel, took an interest in their situation, and succeeded in 
getting admission for M'lle. d'Orleans and Madame Genlis into a 
convent at Bremgarten. To the Duke of Chartres he could only 
say, that there was nothing for him to do but to wander in the 
mountains, until circumstances should become more favorable. 
Alone and on foot, almost without money, he began his travels in 
the interior of Switzerland and the Alps. Everywhere he was seen 
contending with courage against fatigue and poverty. But his re- 
sources were entirely exhausted, and being recalled to Bremgarten 
by a letter from Montesquiou, he obtained the situation of professor 
at the college of Richenau. He was examined by the officers of 
this institution under a feigned name, and unanimously admitted. 
Here he taught geography, liistory, the French and English lan- 
guages, and mathematics, for eight months, without having been 
discovered. 

The simplicity of his manners prevented any suspicion being 
entertained of his rank, while his amiable conduct gained the 
esteem of the government, and gratitude of his pupils. It was at 



LOUIS PHILIP. 25t 

this place he learned the tragical end of his father, the Duke of 
Orleans, whose title now descended to himself. Montesqiiiois 
now thought he could with safety offer an asylum to the duke, 
of whom his enemies had for some time lost all trace. 

Here he remained for some time, under the name of Corby, 
when, his retreat being no longer a secret, he determined to go to 
America, and Hamburg appeared to him the best place for his 
embarkation. Before, however, he had completed his arrange- 
ments, he received a letter from his mother, the Duchess of Orleans, 
in which she begged him, in the most touching manner, to quit 
Europe for America. He sailed from the Elbe, on board the 
American ship America, in September, 1796, and in October, he 
landed in Philadelphia. The following year he was joined by 
his two brothers, the Duke of Montpensier, and Count Beaujo- 
lais. Louis proposed to them to travel through the interior of 
the United states. They set out on horseback, accompanied by 
a single servant named Beaudouin, whose firm attachment to his 
master had caused him to follow him many hundred miles through 
fatigue and sometimes almost starvation. They passed through 
Virginia, paid a visit to General Washington at Mount Vernon, 
and traveled through the principal southern states. They re- 
turned to Philadelphia, their funds being entirely exhausted. They 
were dependent upon some rich merchants for their support till 
their mother, having recovered possession of her property, sup- 
plied them with the means for a new journey. In Boston they 
learned that she had been transported to Spain. They imme- 
diately returned to Philadelphia, intending, if possible, to join her 
there. No ship being likely to sail from the above port, they 
eventually sailed from New York in an English vessel, and ar- 
rived in London in February, 1800. 

The duke and his brothers resided for some time at Twicken- 
ham, twelve miles from London, where the Duke of Montpensier 
died. Count Beaujolais was in feeble health, and was ordered by 
the English physicians to a warmer climate. The duke accom- 
panied him to Malta ; thence to Sicily ; but before their arrival 



252 LOUIS PHILIP. 

at the latter place, the young prince died. After many adventures, 
the duke met his mother at Mahon, from whom he had been 
separated sixteen years. At Palermo, he was married to the 
Princess Marie Amelia, daughter of the King of Sicily. After 
the fall of Napoleon, he returned to Paris, and enjoyed the happi- 
ness of finding himself in a country which had not forgotten his 
former services. On the return of Napoleon he sent his family 
to England, and soon after joined them at their late residence at 
Twickenham. 

On the return of Louis the Eighteenth to France, Louis Philip 
brought his family from England, and took up his residence at 
his beautiful seat of Neuilly, whence he was invited to repair 
to Paris and assume the executive power, under the title of lieu- 
tenant-general of the kingdom. When the session of the Cham- 
bers was opened, and the abdication of Charles was declared, an 
invitation was signed by the members, to Louis Philip, to assume 
the title of King of the French, which he accepted ; and he took 
the oath to the new charter. Louis Philip had by his wife Marie 
Amelia, Princess of Naples, eight children, seven of whom are 
now living: — Ferdinand, the late Duke of Orleans, born Sept. 3, 
1810. Louisa Marie, born April 3, 1812. Marie Christine, born 
April 12, 1813. Louis, Duke of Nemours, born Oct. 25th, 1814. 
Marie Clementina, born June 3, 1817. Francis, Prince de Join- 
ville, Aug. 14th, 1818. Henry, Duke d'Aumale, born Jan. 16th, 
1822. Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, born July 31st, 1824. 



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